{"id":3975,"date":"2018-01-10T00:06:34","date_gmt":"2018-01-10T00:06:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/?p=3975"},"modified":"2018-07-11T21:14:25","modified_gmt":"2018-07-11T21:14:25","slug":"kodaks-ico-for-a-stock-photo-site-that-doesnt-exist-yet-but-the-stock-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/01\/10\/kodaks-ico-for-a-stock-photo-site-that-doesnt-exist-yet-but-the-stock-price\/","title":{"rendered":"Kodak&#8217;s ICO for a stock photo site that doesn&#8217;t exist yet. But the stock price!"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>Part 1: KodakCoin announced, stock price rockets<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/01\/10\/kodak-pt-2-photographers-cant-sell-kodakcoin-and-the-kodak-kashminer-is-a-bitcoin-mining-scam\/\">Part 2:<\/a> KodakCoin restrictions, the KashMiner scam<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/01\/12\/kodak-pt-3-kodakcoin-presale-prehistory-hot-takes-and-harsh-realities\/\">Part 3:<\/a> KodakCoin presale, prehistory, hot takes and harsh realities<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/02\/07\/kodak-pt-4-kerrisdale-capitals-blistering-crypto-pre-mortem-for-kodak\/\">Part 4:<\/a> Kerrisdale Capital&#8217;s crypto pre-mortem for Kodak<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/03\/08\/kodak-pt-5-kodakcoin-ico-light-paper-released\/\">Part 5:<\/a> The KodakCoin ICO Light Paper<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/05\/29\/kodak-pt-6-kodakcoins-on-sale-and-the-reg-a-escape-route\/\">Part 6:<\/a> KodakCoins on sale, and the Reg A+ escape route<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/07\/11\/kodak-pt-7-kodak-kashminer-the-bitcoin-cloud-mining-scheme-that-never-existed\/\">Part 7:<\/a> The KashMiner that never was<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The shambling remains of what was once beloved photographic film company Kodak have announced an ICO! It had the desired effect on the stock, inflating it to the dizzying heights it enjoyed three months ago:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/01\/10\/kodaks-ico-for-a-stock-photo-site-that-doesnt-exist-yet-but-the-stock-price\/ftalphaville-kodak-price-2018-01-09172857\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3976\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3976\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/ftalphaville-kodak-price-2018-01-09172857.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"624\" height=\"432\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/ftalphaville-kodak-price-2018-01-09172857.png 624w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/ftalphaville-kodak-price-2018-01-09172857-300x208.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 624px) 100vw, 624px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Listen, a bunch of you out there have obviously programmed your algos to buy any stock that looks sideways at the words \u2018blockchain\u2019 or \u2018cryptocurrency\u2019. Please, stop it,&#8221; begged Kadhim Shubber at <a href=\"https:\/\/ftalphaville.ft.com\/2018\/01\/09\/2197423\/kodak-makes-last-desperate-bid-for-relevancy-with-photo-centric-cryptocurrency\/\">FT Alphaville<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But what magic will the Kodak ICO light the world with? Why, they&#8217;re going to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesswire.com\/news\/home\/20180109006183\/en\/KODAK-WENN-Digital-Partner-Launch-Major-Blockchain\">empower photographers and agencies to take greater control in image rights management!<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Utilizing blockchain technology, the KODAKOne<i> <\/i>platform 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. With KODAKCoin, participating photographers are invited to take part in a new economy for photography, receive payment for licensing their work immediately upon sale, and for both professional and amateur photographers, sell their work confidently on a secure blockchain platform. KODAKOne<i> <\/i>platform provides continual web crawling in order to monitor and protect the IP of the images registered in the KODAKOne<i> <\/i>system. Where\u00a0unlicensed usage of images is detected, the KODAKOne<i> <\/i>platform can efficiently manage the post-licensing process in order to reward photographers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That is: a stock photo site, in the manner of Shutterstock or Getty Images, that does pre-emptive web searches for image usage \u2014 there&#8217;s no way they&#8217;re going to run their own crawler when <a href=\"https:\/\/images.google.com\/\">Google<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bing.com\/images\/discover\">Bing<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tineye.com\/\">TinEye<\/a> exist \u2014 which will store the data on a blockchain for &#8230; reasons, okay:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cFor many in the tech industry, \u2018blockchain\u2019 and \u2018cryptocurrency\u2019 are hot buzzwords, but for photographers who\u2019ve long struggled to assert control over their work and how it\u2019s used, these buzzwords are the keys to solving what felt like an unsolvable problem,\u201d said Kodak CEO Jeff Clarke. \u201cKodak has always sought to democratize photography and make licensing fair to artists. These technologies give the photography community an innovative and easy way to do just that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Per the <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2017\/09\/04\/ico-of-the-day-synthetic-rhino-horn-erection-pills-on-the-blockchain\/\">standard ICO pitch<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>State a problem.<\/li>\n<li>Claim that ICO tokens can, somehow, solve it.<\/li>\n<li>There aren&#8217;t any other steps.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The photographers won&#8217;t get paid in actual money,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/8c650b4c-f564-11e7-8715-e94187b3017e\"> but in KODAKcoin<\/a>. Those reusing the photos buy KODAKcoins to buy the photos, these are passed to the photographer (minus a percentage), then the photographer exchanges the\u00a0KODAKcoins for real money, er, somewhere. Bet you not Kodak.<\/p>\n<p>I know photographers who&#8217;ve spent thousands on equipment to get literally tens of pounds a year from Getty Images\u00a0\u2014 but even that strikes me as an obviously better deal.<\/p>\n<p>The stock photo platform <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kodak.com\/kodakone\/default.htm\">doesn&#8217;t appear to exist yet<\/a>. But they bothered calling the lawyers, and are selling this to &#8220;accredited investors from the U.S., UK, Canada and other select countries. This initial Coin Offering is issued under SEC guidelines as a security token under Regulation 506 (c) as an exempt offering.&#8221; 506(c) means <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/fast-answers\/answers-rule506htm.html\">they&#8217;ll be checking every purchaser&#8217;s eligibility<\/a> and doing all of this properly. So at least that&#8217;s in order.<\/p>\n<p>They&#8217;ve already flubbed the naming \u2014 Kodachrome therefore Kodacoin, <em>obviously<\/em> \u2014 but they did release the development version of kodakcoin.com a bit early, before they put up the &#8220;Coming Soon&#8221; splash. Craig Burley got screenshots before they took it down:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/craig_burley\/status\/950850293188743168<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/craig_burley\/status\/950852476844105728<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/craig_burley\/status\/950859550802038784<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/craig_burley\/status\/950854869161824256<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/craig_burley\/status\/950880681579737093<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Their partner in this endeavour is a company called WENN Digital:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>WENN Digital, in partnership with Kodak, is the creator of the KODAKOne platform and the KODAKCoin cryptocurrency. WENN Digital is an experienced development and operations team with deep expertise in proprietary blockchain development, big data, copyright law, AI-enabled image recognition and post licensing monetization systems.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That&#8217;s quite the impressive portfolio for a company that&#8217;s existed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bizapedia.com\/de\/wenn-digital-inc.html\">since November last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>WENN Digital has a strategic relationship with the Deloitte Analytics Institute in Berlin and the Deloitte Blockchain Institute in Munich.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I wrote in <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/table-of-contents\/\">chapter 11<\/a> of the <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/book\/\">book<\/a> about <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/business-bafflegab-but-on-the-blockchain\/\">Big Four accountants<\/a> and blockchains. Though the present initiative is all entirely in keeping with the <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/icos-magic-beans-and-bubble-machines\/\">ICO section<\/a> of chapter 9.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Further, WENN Digital leverages the market position of its 30-year old subsidiary WENN Media, which works with approximately 2,500 professional photographers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>WENN Media is a company that has indeed existed for thirty years \u2014 it&#8217;s the London office of <a href=\"https:\/\/wenn.com\/\">World Entertainment News Network<\/a>. It&#8217;s not clear if WENN Digital is claiming to have bought its parent; other coverage indicates the relationship you&#8217;d expect.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>WENN Digital\u2019s live operational copyright infringement management system is delivering revenues to photographers worldwide today and will form Phase 1 of the KODAKOne platform.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is a claim of operation in the present day, though the Google search API is easy enough to use in a program.<\/p>\n<p>The Chief Marketing Officer of WENN Digital is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bruce-elliott-79256221\/\">Bruce Elliott<\/a>, who also runs <a href=\"http:\/\/appcoininnovations.com\/\">App Coin Innovations<\/a>, who are running Kodak&#8217;s ICO. Cameron Chell of WENN Digital is also from App Coin. App Coin <a href=\"http:\/\/getfilings.com\/sec-filings\/171127\/AppCoin-Innovations-Inc_8-K\/\">owns 7.5%<\/a> of WENN Digital.<\/p>\n<p>App Coin has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/research\/stocks\/private\/snapshot.asp?privcapid=129250617\">bought the shell of<\/a> Redstone Literary Agents, a <a href=\"https:\/\/stockflare.com\/stock\/rdla.pk\">penny stock<\/a> company, which grants them at least a pink sheets listing.<\/p>\n<p>You will be gobsmacked to hear that this is <em>not<\/em> the stupidest idea Kodak have announced today. I present to you: the Kodak KashMiner\u00a0\u2014 with a K\u00a0\u2014 a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/technology-42630136\">bitcoin cloud mining scheme<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">And yet that&#39;s still only the second stupidest thing to come out of Kodak *today* <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/zdly8ASECl\">pic.twitter.com\/zdly8ASECl<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Garrett Serack\ud83e\udd20 (@fearthecowboy) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/fearthecowboy\/status\/950865561616920576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 9, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Kodak also detailed plans to install rows of Bitcoin mining rigs at its headquarters in Rochester, New York.<\/p>\n<p>Customers will pay up-front to rent mining capacity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/01\/10\/kodaks-ico-for-a-stock-photo-site-that-doesnt-exist-yet-but-the-stock-price\/kodak-kashminer\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3993\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3993\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/kodak-kashminer.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"660\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/kodak-kashminer.jpg 660w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/kodak-kashminer-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>They&#8217;re doing the mining using spare capacity at their <a href=\"http:\/\/innovationtrail.org\/post\/ask-trail-guide-how-much-coal-does-kodak-burn\">in-house coal-fired power plant<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/01\/10\/kodaks-ico-for-a-stock-photo-site-that-doesnt-exist-yet-but-the-stock-price\/kodak-coal-plant-sunset\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4007\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4007\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/kodak-coal-plant-sunset.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"80%\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/kodak-coal-plant-sunset.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/kodak-coal-plant-sunset-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/kodak-coal-plant-sunset-768x461.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Let none mistake all of this for the flayed and tattered hide of a once-respected company being pumped full of gas by shonky chancers. These are <em>respectable businessmen<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The ICO itself launches on 31 January. You know the bubble will last until then. BUY! BUY! BUY! (Not investment advice.)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Update:<\/b> The KodakOne <a href=\"https:\/\/kodakcoin.com\/\">ICO advertising site<\/a> is up! As I said: &#8220;all payments will be made in Kodak Coin.&#8221; No white paper, but you can sign up for a &#8220;lite paper.&#8221; (I know that several people including me have requested it, none have received it as yet.) No prospectus for the security offering. Also has &#8220;artificial intelligence technology&#8221; for added buzzword compliance.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update two:<\/strong> Our story continues in <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/01\/10\/kodak-pt-2-photographers-cant-sell-kodakcoin-and-the-kodak-kashminer-is-a-bitcoin-mining-scam\/\">Kodak pt 2<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 in which KodakCoins may not be tradeable, and the KashMiner is a standard Bitcoin cloud mining scam!<\/p>\n<br><br><div align=\"center\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\"><img src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/become_a_patron_button.svg\" alt=\"Become a Patron!\" title=\"Become a Patron!\" width=217 height=51><\/a><br><p style=\"align:center;\" class=\"patreon-badge\"><i>Your subscriptions keep this site going. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\">Sign up today!<\/a><\/i><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A photo site that pays photographers in ICO tokens rather than actual money isn&#8217;t the worst idea Kodak floated today. There was also the Kodak KashMiner cloud Bitcoin mining operation &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[375,9,376,370,371,372,373,374],"class_list":["post-3975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-bruce-elliott","tag-ico","tag-kashminer","tag-kodak","tag-kodakcoin","tag-kodakone","tag-wenn-digital","tag-world-entertainment-news-network"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3975"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8673,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3975\/revisions\/8673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}