Developers all over the world are looking at various ways to integrate blockchain technology into everyday life. In most cases, this is easier said than done, as everyday consumers are not too keen on Bitcoin technology. However, there seems to be something about BlockNotary that gets people excited, and the recent integration of Factom will only keep the momentum going.
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BlockNotary: Storing Digital Fingerprints of Photos on the Blockchain
In this day and age, more consumers are worried about how their personal data is being collected. Even when taking a photo, there is always some information associated with the location where the picture was take; the time, and even device information. Exposing that sort of information is risky, and solutions keeping a balance between transparency and privacy have to be created.
BlockNotary comes in the form of a mobile application — currently only available for Apple users — that aims to tackle this problem head on. By acting as a “notary for the digital age,” this application allows users to store the digital fingerprints of their photos on the Bitcoin blockchain. Doing so gives the ownera copyright over their material, as anyone can publicly verify when a picture was taken.
All it takes for a user is to download the BlockNotary app onto their device, and they can start storing digital fingerprints of any content in the blockchain immediately. Regardless of whether photo, video, or clipboard content is being created, all of these content types can be copyrighted using this mobile application.
BlockNotary’s Igor Barinov told Bitcoinist:
The numbers for BlockNotary have been quite good so far: there are about 200 registered users, 250 installs and 600 notarized documents. The Android version is in development now, and I hope to publish it in January. It will be great boost to the BlockNotary user base.
In the beginning, BlockNotary used Bitcoin TestNet3 and BlockCypher Test for embedding these digital fingerprints in the Bitcoin blockchain. Support for Bitcoin Livenet, Factom, and other services, would follow shortly afterwards. That wait is finally over, as Factom integration has been officially announced not too long ago.
Factom Integration in BlockNotary
It only makes sense to combine the power of storing digital fingerprints in the blockchain with the services offered by Factom. The blockchain is a powerful tool to achieve this type of goal, and making copyright registration as easy as loading a mobile application is just one example of what can be achieved.
Factom specializes in building immutable and unhackable systems. They create them by taking digital fingerprints of data and securing them in the Factom Data Layer. This simplifies record management, security, and compliance issues. All of these areas of expertise can be coupled back to the topic of copyright registration. Additionally, Factom maintains a permanent, time-stamped record of data in the blockchain, which will be of great value to the BlockNotary users.
Abhi Dobhal, Factom VP of Business Development stated:
BlockNotary is like having a notary in your pocket. Taking a picture on your phone and proving it existed can be a very powerful tool. The BlockNotary team did a wonderful job designing an easy and intuitive application. It’s a great example of how using Factom, allows developers to address two primary issues with building applications directly onto the Bitcoin Blockchain–scalability and cost. Now millions of documents can be photographed and secured in the blockchain without bloating it and at a fraction of the cost.
App users who download BlockNotary will receive three tokens for free, all of which can be used for registering a content copyright claim on the Bitcoin blockchain. Registering any claim on the Bitcoin Testnet will always be free of charge, but using the “real” blockchain will require additional expenses once the three tokens have been used.
Will you use the BlockNotary app? Let us know in the comments below!
Source: Factom Blog
Images courtesy of BlockNotary, Factom, Shutterstock