Baidu Launches a Blockchain-based Stock Photo Platform
As the Blockchain technology is becoming more and more accessible, developers and tech geeks from around the world are working on several potential applications. China’s internet and search giant Baidu has launched a new blockchain-based stock photo platform called ‘Totem’ in an effort to protect the intellectual property of images.
On Wednesday, Baidu released this service known as Totem that makes use of a blockchain to timestamp the submissions of each original photograph from a user with his real name and identity. The blockchain network will thus help to securely store the data associated with such images and will further prevent any sort of misuse by creating duplicate profiles.
Additionally, the internet giant claims that using power technological tools of artificial intelligence and internet data scrapping, the blockchain-based Totem platform will be able to trace the circulated digital copies of the images on the internet and in case of misuse, it can cross-verify any allegations of intellectual property infringement.
According to the reports, several stock photography services in China have already started to move on Baidu’s platform with some popular and notable names like the Visual China Group who is a local partner of the stock photography giant Getty Images.
No further technical details regarding the Totem platform are available at the moment and it remains unclear whether it will be a private or a public blockchain. Baidu, often recognized as the “Google of China” is seen making some serious efforts in its adoption of new evolving technologies.
Baidu has been making use of the Artificial Intelligence for different industrial purposes and now it seems that it wants to explore the emerging blockchain industry. Earlier in 2018, Baidu has launched its own blockchain-as-a-service platform that has been designed to provide users with an easy-to-understand blockchain experience thereby offering services like digital billing, digital currency, insurance management financial auditing, bank credit management, and much more.
Also back in February, the company launched a Chinese version of the popular CryptoKitties game on the Ethereum blockchain, called Laici Go.
Note that this is not the first attempt by a company to launch a blockchain-based solution to protect the intellectual property rights of images or digital media. Earlier this year in January, photography giant Kodak announced similar plans in partnership with WENN digital by launching its own digital currency called KodakCoin.