[ANN] Rarebit: collectible digital works protocol layer for artists/collectors

[rarebitproject]

UPDATE JUNE 2014: A New Rarebit client (alpha) is online now:

http://rarebit.github.io/project/

A full client that runs in the browser with a modern UI.  Loads, hashes, issues editions, and transfers lots of digital works.  Shows/plays supported media in app background.

See last post below for more.  The new client uses the hash of a file directly instead of putting it into a certificate.  The issue tx carries the author's sig and so serves as a timestamped certificate once added to a block.  Proves existence, authorship, originality.

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Rarebit is a protocol designed to enable collectible digital works to be issued and traded on the bitcoin network.

Using a Rarebit client, an artist or author can issue digitally signed limited editions of a work online, and collectors can trade units of the edition with the assurance they are authentic.

Whitepaper:
  http://rarebit.github.io/project/doc/rbprimer.html

Baseline reference client:
  http://rarebit.github.io/project/client/min

  *runs in the browser (implemented in client-side javascript); early beta suitable mostly for demonstration at this time.


Protocol summary:

1. A work is signed by the author: A digital certificate is created to accompany the work, and a bitcoin address is generated that uniquely identifies the signed work.

2. Editions of a signed work are issued by the author: Transactions are broadcast to the bitcoin network that record the work's ID and quantity.

3. Units of an edition are aquired and traded among collectors:
  a. The author signs over units to collectors in new transactions.
  b. Current owners sign over units to new owners in additional transactions.

4. The provenance of a unit is demonstrated: The linked transactions stored in bitcoin's public ledger are scrutinized to ensure a unit originates from the author and has not been duplicated.

A work is typically a digital file such as a photo, video, or ebook.

Rarebit, like bitcoin, is "trustless", i.e., confidence is placed in cryptographic proof instead of a central authority.  Rarebit is not a copyright enforcement ("digital rights management") scheme. The protocol defines no capability for restricting how a work can be consumed. Rarebit merely distinguishes collectible copies from all others.

[GianniDalerta]

You should contribute your idea to the Colored Coin project. https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/bitcoinx

I believe what you have contributed and what they are doing go hand in hand. I believe they need help with the client. Which basically is your idea but extendable to any object (I maybe wrong)

[rarebitproject]

You should contribute your idea to the Colored Coin project. https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/bitcoinx

I believe what you have contributed and what they are doing go hand in hand. I believe they need help with the client. Which basically is your idea but extendable to any object (I maybe wrong)

I started development on Rarebit before the colored coin group really formed for real and got things going.  In my spec, I acknowledge Meni Rosenfeld's paper, which I read when I started my development.

Yes, Rarebit can be thought of as a specialized colored coin protocol (as can mastercoin), and it might be possible to make Rarebit interoperable with colored coin.

The colored coin protocol is a bit in flux right now, so this would be something to look at in six months or so.

I'll read more into how the new colored coin spec addresses originations, and also what mechanism is used to protect colored coin outputs from accidental redemption by normal wallets.  Also I'm a big fan of brainwallet passphrases, so if using them presents difficulties, that would be a problem.

All this stuff is very new, so we'll see what happens....

[rarebitproject]

ANNOUNCEMENT: New Rarebit* client (alpha) is online now:

http://rarebit.github.io/project/

Full client that runs in the browser with a modern UI.  Loads, hashes, issues editions, and transfers lots of digital works.  Shows/plays supported media in app background.  In this implementation, issue transactions carry the author's signature and thus serve as timestamped certificates of authenticity.

Release notes:

There are bugs.  This alpha downloads from Testnet (when Sync is selected).  An author/owner identity can be created, then seed funding can be added using a testnet faucet (instructions in app).  Issue transactions will post, but not xfer transactions yet due to a bug (they will still be added to internal cache to simulate the xfer for demonstration).

The option to add a URL (pointer to content) to an issue tx is not yet implemented.

Firefox is recommended (TOR browser).  Some minimal testing was performed on a version of Chrome.


* The Rarebit protocol works by associating the hash of digital content with a small amount of bitcoin value, producing a 'token' that is provably bound to the content it represents. The token is also provably bound to the author.  Proves existence, authorship, originality.