Congrats to our first week of our photo competition @izzynoel with his beautiful image which perfectly captures the week's theme of concrete jungle. The competition continues. Check out the winning images and how to take part in this weeks competition on Steemit:

https://steemit.com/photography/@runicar/4qeawz-photochain-photography-contest

Yes we are confident that we can offer the best possible copyright protection that exists. Copytrack are undoubtedly a leader in the field - the only company who deals with copyright issues on a global scale and the only that have made use of blockchain too  to deepen their service quality.

Yes, we think we would and should. But attracting photographers also isn't as expensive as thought thanks to social media like Instagram and EyeEm.

Later yes, and we will follow up with a write up of all the news from the event.

This is a point for debate, most likely no however as a watermark added by a user will be detected by our Computer Vision (copyright algorithm) as an altered image.

To keep the integrity of unmanipulated images it would be best not to allow personal watermarks.

In short, as this has been answered several times before:

For sellers, by having a platform that better serves their interests (lets them set their own prices; decentralized ledger of ownership; keep ownership of images; decentralized storage etc (please see our WP for all)) then they naturally want to move to sell photography on our platform. We have had hundreds of conversations with photographers who don't use stock photography sites as 1. get ripped off on their own works 2. have restrictions on their ownership of their own works 3. find them too complicated and many other reasons.

As for buyers, the biggest incentive to use Photochain is that the photos will be here. If the sellers have joined us, the buyers will naturally follow - just like how eBay started. Of course we will market ourselves to buyers, offer them an easier to use platform than stock platforms, and the benefits of blockchain / crypto - but by large they follow where the photography is. We have spoken to photography agencies and other buyers, and on this they agree that they only follow the photos.

Depends on what you mean by "truly decentralized".

Like is bitcoin truly decentralized? If you must use centralized exchanges to trade / convert / buy or sell, then no it is not truly decentralized. Photochain is of the same ilk. To put all features on the blockchain makes no sense. What is decentralized is the storage, copyright ownership and accounting (i.e. trading of both tokens and of images).

Stanislav, "As early discussions show, a decentralized platform with free choice of price as Photochain offers is a critical need of the industry."



#CEPIC2018 #photography #blockchain

Ideally, as you can imagine, we'd like to be sold out of course (as would everybody). However, as far as utility tokens are selling now after the 'great dip of early 2018' the whole ICO market for utility tokens has slowed.

We have larger investors watching us, who want to commit depending on technical and business development. Therefore, we are now developing our product's beta version and working on some other business development deals (partnerships, buyers, sellers etc.).

We are still very confident of reaching our hardcap though as in the long term this will all be beneficial to the project.

You can see the breakdown of how funds raised will be used here at: https://photochain.io/#token
30% will be used for marketing

You can read about our biggest investor here: https://medium.com/photochain/photochain-agrees-deal-with-uae-crypto-fund-for-25-million-pht-tokens-f714c7b5ff2f

We've also received investment from some of the biggest individuals in blockchain: Willson Lee and Roberto Capodieci, who have gone on to not only invest, but to advise our project on its future implementation beyond the ICO.

From the point of view of our main business model, our target is photographers. However, photography is something everyone can do - as we are aiming to be a mass market business model. So even those who aren't professional photographers but are crypto enthusiasts can get involved.

Our revenue projections can be found in the WP under section 6.3

Do you have photos you'd like to share with our community? 📷
Do you want to be rewarded for these photos? 💸

Join our photography competition on Steemit now! If you don't have an account, head over there to join now to take part in their engaging community today!

Each entrant is rewarded with Photon tokens 🎉
And 3 prizes $500, $250 and $100 worth PHT tokens available each week too!
Monthly superstar prize 2500$ 👑

https://steemit.com/photography/@runicar/photochain-photography-contest

Photochain Invited to Speak at Photo Industry’s Most Prestigious Event

“Can Blockchain Be Applied to the Photo Industry?”


Thanks to Photochain, and others working in this space, the industry is excited about the unique potential of blockchain technology on the photo industry. Photochain are recognized as one of the chief innovators in the industry, so we are delighted to have been invited to speak at CEPIC, on Wednesday 30th May.

Joining us on stage will be the CEO behind KodakCoin, so you can expect a heated debate!

See the full story here: https://medium.com/photochain/photochain-invited-to-speak-at-photo-industrys-most-prestigious-event-93a187d24612

Yes, we are in constant communication with photographers and have many signed up to take part in our alpha phase. We are also hosting photography contests on Steemit to attract more photographers, as well as directly approaching them on an individual basis via our ambassadors, as well as attending large relevant conferences, such as CEPIC - the largest world event for commercial still images - in Berlin on 30th May to June 1st. http://cepic.org/congress/programme

Of course! Please see our current partnerships: https://medium.com/photochain/photochains-partners-who-are-they-and-why-are-they-important-for-us-69f0b9b60119

Of these, the key ones are Copytrack (for copyright protection on the platform) and Blockchain Zoo (top class consultancy in blockchain technical matters).

Thank you so much to say! Really proud of that. The original draft took more than 3 months to complete. However we have been constantly updating and changing our plans in line with the community's view and feedback - hence why the whitepaper is listed on Google Docs.

Our digital copyright chain (DCC) provides an automated and innovative solution. To upload a photo, a user must have their identity verified. Then each uploaded photo is cryptographically hashed into a relatively small code, and this hash is permanently linked to the user who uploaded it. This link forever exists in the blockchain, through the DCC. Each image will have its own unique hash, but if I were to upload the same image twice, it would have the same hash as the pixels of the image are what are used to create the hash.

A trail of ownership is set for every single photo that passes through the platform, based on this hash and its link to the owner.

Then each uploaded image, by every photographer, is scanned against the DCC for copyright infringement, to see if the hash is the same.

As for preventing a buyer from re-distributing the works. As blockchain records and timestamps every transaction, it is always possible to trace who has legal ownership of an image's license and who doesn't. In the case where an image is discovered where the user doesn't have rightful licensing, this is copyright infringement and is illegal!

At this point copyright law comes into place and the user has the possibility to pay huge fines and many other penalties. For Photochain also, our recent copyright partnership with Copytrack.io should help us to further enforce copyright rules off the Photochain platform.

To answer your questions in order:

1. Yes, we will implement a watermark. We understand photographers' concerns about this and this will definitely be a feature. As we will not be hosting the images themselves, we will ensure uploaders' own name is the watermark (maybe alongside a Photochain smaller watermark)
2. We will have a system to organize categories of photography such as editorial, royalty free, commercial, restricted use etc..
3. Yes, this will be possible. We just need you to verify your identity for legal / licensing purposes, but you can remain anonymous
4. Not yet unfortunately. Drop us an email to in@photochain.io that you'd like to be an early contributor and we'll be in touch in our alpha release phase.

Thank you for your support and your good questions!