One big issue in the art world right now is buying and selling digitally-based media. While there are some interesting efforts made to address this issue ( http://www.ifnoyes.com/ ), often artists resort to making some kind of physical output or embodiment of digital code (an object) that can circulate more easily within the existing strictures of the art market. ( http://paddle8.com/auctions/paddleson )
I am interested in developing a method or system where a contractual ownership token or message can be embedded with a blockchain transaction. This way an artist working digitally can present the work in its native form (on the internet, for instance), yet still have a mechanism to sell it to a collector who would have a verifiable and secure way of showing ownership and transferring ownership to another party.
My idea seems related to Contracts ( https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Contracts ), colored coins ( https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=305042.0 ), and maybe even smartcoin ( https://github.com/jgarzik/smartcoin ), but it is difficult to know where to begin.
Is it about message embedding? ( http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/2631/what-are-the-key-differences-between-different-ways-of-embedding-messages-in-the ) But ones that would persist across transactions?
Or is it about developing essentially a custom wallet that would create specialized, contract-like transactions?
I've even thought of Ripple and creating custom currency that would be "backed" by the artwork, like what TTBit did with DYM
( https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=149533.0 )
I am a digital artist and an academic, so this is a creative/research interest I'm trying to develop. More experiment and proof-of-concept than entrepreneurial startup. I'm an OK coder but I wouldn't call myself a developer.
Any ideas, suggestions? anybody want to collaborate? Let me know.