The latest cryptocurrency is going to be launched by the Eastman Kodak Company. It's hard to believe that the once-dominant photography business is now going to be involved in the latest financial craze.
Investors clearly loved the idea, with the share price up by 117% in one day. It's going to be called the KODAKCoin and use the same Blockchain technology as the other cryptocurrencies.
Kodak is launching an image rights management platform called KODAKOne that will create an encrypted, digital ledger of rights ownership for photographers to register both new and archive work that they can then license within the platform.
The KODAKCoin will allow participating photographers to take part in a new economy for photography, receive payment for licensing their work immediately upon sale and sell their work confidently on a secure blockchain platform.
The KODAKOne platform will continually trawl the internet to monitor and protect the intellectual property of the images registered in the system. Where unlicensed usage of images is detected the platform can efficiently manage the post-licensing process to reward photographers.
This idea sounds completely out of the box for Kodak, which seemed destined to be left behind in this technological world. However, the concept sounds great and could be a huge boost to the company over time.
I expect the KODAKCoin price could rocket on its release.
Kodak also revealed plans to install rows of Bitcoin mining rigs at its headquarters using spare power capacity at its on-site power generator.
I think this shows how even old-school companies can utilise new technology to thrust themselves back into relevance and now it could become the world's leading photo IP company, as well as perhaps running the most legitimate cryptocurrency.
If some ASX companies like Myer Holdings Ltd (ASX: MYR) or Cabcharge Australia Limited (ASX: CAB) could think as left-field as Kodak has to regenerate itself, then they could actually be onto something.
In-fact, the below link has information on the next exciting technology trend.
