US telecom giant AT&T is seeking a patent for a kind of home subscriber server that utilizes a blockchain.
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New York based startup Mediachain Labs has announced the launch of Mediachain Attribution Engine, an application built using Mediachain, an open media library built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain and the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). The Mediachain Attribution Engine application will help users find high quality and properly attributed images that can be used for any visual imaging needs — on websites, in blog posts and presentations, and more — while allowing publishers and creators to secure the rights of their digital content.
Speaking to Bitcoin Magazine, Mediachain Labs Co-Founder, Denis Nazarov, said that unattributed content shared on the internet not only gives rise to plagiarism but also prevents people from connecting with the content creators. He adds, “attribution is fundamental to the creative process because it guarantees that creators can connect directly with their fans, but the currently available content attribution systems are inefficient.”
“People care about connecting with creators, but the ability to easily do that is currently broken. It's really easy to share images by copy and pasting them, but that usually means you break the chain linking to the creator,” Nazarov said. “This means that when someone is looking at a great image that they love in their feed, they have no idea who made it or anything about it.”
“The goal of Attribution Engine is so that audiences can always connect, like, upvote or even tip, someone whose work they admire directly through the media itself.”
How it Works
The Mediachain Attribution Engine is built on top of the Mediachain open media library project. It will allow publishers and content creators to upload their content and attach information to their media, which will then be time-stamped in the Bitcoin blockchain and stored in the IPFS. The information can then be looked up via perceptual search using an instance of the media itself.
“Attribution Engine makes attribution as easy as copy/paste, and more importantly, all the data Attribution Engine is built on is open and decentralized, meaning any developer can download the data, or even extend it by contributing directly to Mediachain,” Project Lead and Co-Founder Jesse Walden said to Bitcoin Magazine. “This means Mediachain attribution can be automatically integrated in any application. It gives developers access to a universal, open media library full of great content that they can use in new, innovative media applications, obviating the need for consumers to manually attribute content.”
Users can search the Mediachain open library database using the Mediachain Attribution Engine for images they want to share. Once they find an image they like, they can copy and paste the html code of the link to their blog post or website. The attribution for the image is embedded in the html code itself, hence there is no further need on part of the user to manually attribute the image. The Mediachain Attribution Engine currently doesn’t support sharing of the images directly to social media sites, but Navarov said they are looking forward to adding that feature.
“The internet is really good at helping creators reach a large audience, but when media is shared virally, it often loses any connection to it's creator, it’s orgin and it’s story,” said Walden. “Mediachain enables a channel to discover the identity of the creator anywhere their media is shared, enabling a connection with the full scale of their audience so they can derive all the benefits of achieving scale on the internet.
He added, “Important to note that this means there is more incentive for creators to post great content online, as opposed to approaches that try to impose artificial scarcity for media that is categorically ‘out there.’”
Future Prospects
The current participants in the Mediachain project are The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Getty Images, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and Europeana Collections. All of the content on the Mediachain database is used under the Creative Commons license; however, Nazarov said that their goal is to expand to commercially licensed content that will allow creators and publishers to monetize their content.
“Creative Commons is our first use to demonstrate how Mediachain works end-to-end,” Nazarov said. “We think openly-licensed media is a great fit for a decentralized media library. But the goal is to expand to commercially-licensed content in the near future. The same channel that is used to transfer attention directly to creators in Attribution Engine today can be used to send a payment tomorrow, all with no middlemen.”
Mediachain is currently accepting attributed content from verified Creative Commons sources only, including any Creative Commons images from Flickr, a site that is often mined for images. The Attribution Engine for creators is currently in private beta but interested parties can sign up for the public beta here.
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Continuing a wave of momentum that began a few months ago, Bitcoin payment provider BitPay just introduced its next advancement — the release of a full-featured BitPay app for purchasing, storing and spending bitcoin. Announced on Monday October 24 at Money 20/20 in Las Vegas, this move brings together BitPay’s merchant payment tools with a growing compendium of consumer options, all in one place.
This new app aims to offer security and ease of use in a manner appealing to non-technical users who may otherwise steer away from bitcoin. It allows for the conversion of bitcoin to dollars through an integrated BitPay Visa® Prepaid debit card, currently the only US-wide debit card for bitcoiners. Bitcoin can be purchased and sold by users via exchanges — all through the app. These features offer users a convenient means of aligning their digital and traditional finance worlds, without leaving BitPay.
While many similar services have been launched, most require users to maintain their bitcoin in company-managed accounts, leading to increased vulnerability to security breaches and hacks. The BitPay app overcomes these concerns by allowing users full control over their funds at all times through device-based private keys, backup protocol and multi-device authentication. When the app is downloaded, new users are offered a simple tutorial with steps for easy navigation.
This move, according to BitPay CEO, Stephen Pair, provides a “new way to bring more users and companies into the bitcoin ecosystem.” He notes that the BitPay app is currently available on all mobile and desktop platforms.
“This app is built on years of work spent refining the bitcoin payment experience with BitPay merchants and building a more secure bitcoin wallet with the Copay platform,” BitPay Marketing and Communications Manager, James Walpole, said to Bitcoin Magazine. “We think we’ve been able to answer one of the core problems that have locked new users out of bitcoin: how to offer a beginner-friendly experience that doesn’t sacrifice security. This app is a way to get everything you need to start right with bitcoin, without trusting your money to a third party that can be hacked.”
BitPay jumps into the project with solid track record of delivering bitcoin payment tools for companies like Microsoft, Steam and Newegg.com. The company has also been cultivating Copay — an open source, multi-signature platform that allows users to store multiple, distinct bitcoin wallets in order to keep their funds carefully separated.
News of this app release follows another recent announcement involving BitPay — its role in assisting the betting site NetBet’s efforts to become the first online gambling operator licensed by the U.K. Gambling Commission (UKGC) to offer deposit and withdrawal options in bitcoin for online sports betting and casinos. This initiative is expected to take hold among the U.K.’s growing digital currency community as a safer and more secure environment for gaming interests.
And on September 29, BitPay announced the launch of its modal invoice, a feature that allows for the automation of refunds for bitcoin payment exceptions. It addresses a common issue that continues to haunt new users, namely, instances where an incorrect amount of bitcoin is sent to a BitPay merchant. This new feature offers a means of handling these so called “payment acception” in an easy and streamlined manner that allows users a means of requesting refunds for overpayments and underpayments. For instance, shoppers who underpay, now have a mechanism for retrying their orders; and shoppers who have overpaid, can get their funds returned more quickly. The hope is that this new feature will be a benefit to merchant and consumer alike, allowing for the rapid correction of payments in a more seamless manner.
“A year from now, we’d like the BitPay app to be the wallet that expert bitcoiners use to secure their bitcoin savings and live life on bitcoin," said Walpole. "We also want BitPay to be the wallet people think of when they want to get off to the right start with bitcoin, from getting their first bitcoin, to storing and spending funds securely.”
The post BitPay Launches Bitcoin Payments App Among Array of New Features appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.