Mine: claim a digital file + identify content across platform w/ blockchain

[jessewalden]

Hi I wanted to share a new project to do with content ID in the blockchain.

Mine is a free service for creators to claim ownership of a digital file.

Mine creates a fingerprint of your file, broadcasts it to the Bitcoin blockchain, and allows you to associate a digital identity by publishing the fingerprint. In the future, we hope to make the origin of digital media and the identity of it's creator discoverable anywhere the content is consumed, without a social media account or any other intermediary.

You can fingerprint your files for free and without needing to own any BTC and read more here: http://minefile.info

[1714136178]

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[1714136178]

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[bustrod]

Very interesting project!

...but I'm a little confused:

-how is a digital identity associated to the media's published fingerprint? Where is the metadata on the digital identity; only the fingerprint of the file is broadcast on the blockchain, correct?

-once the media file itself is published, say a personal website, social media page, or distributed via a file sharing service, how is the ownership information recalled and displayed on the media consumer's end?

Forgive my ignorance if I'm just missing these things.

[jessewalden]

Thanks for your comment, it will help refine the copy on the site so the ideas of the project are more clear.

-For the MVP, we chose Twitter as the content ID layer to illustrate the process of associating a fingerprint with a digital identity. After the fingerprint is broadcast to the blockchain, the service queries twitter for the earliest tweet with the file hash and it is stored in Mine. This puts a lot of trust in Twitter, a centralized service, but it was the best example of associating a digital identity with a fingerprint for our MVP. You can audit twitter for presence of the hash in association to a handle yourself, the same way you can look up your file's fingerprint in the blockchain from our JSON proof. In the future, we envision a fingerprint wallet similar to a bitcoin wallet, where you have as many digital pseudonyms (and private keys) as you like, that will watch a certain folder on your hard drive and broadcast fingerprints to the blockchain automatically as files are added or modified. A hash of the fingerprint combined with your public key will be extra metadata that is embedded.

-For a proof of concept of recalling ownership information, we will be releasing a Mine browser extension that will hash images that you consume as you browse the web and ping the Mine api to see if there is a match. If there is, it will augment the images with information about the creator, as shown in the illustrations on the website. Content platforms will also be able to embed the Mine javascript library into their page so content that is shared on their page will automatically be augmented with creator information (the end user won't need to install anything in this case). The idea of externally identifying content and creators without relying on centralized distribution platforms will be very empowering for a direct creator/audience interaction. You can imagine tipping someone a little BTC with the click of a button right on a website you see their image or hear their song, independent of the platform.

[bustrod]

Thank you for the thorough explanation.

Even if reliance on another service to provide the identity as the ownership of a particular piece of media might be a point of concern, it certainly makes a lot of sense to tie that to a social media outlet, such as twitter, as content creators likely already use these systems in connecting direct to their audience.

This is the first I've heard of a project in development with such an aim, and I love the idea. Excited to see this project in practice.

Best of luck!