Kodak Announces Its Own Cryptocurrency, Watches Stock Price Skyrocket (theverge.com)

Kodak has joined the cryptocurrency craze by launching its own KodakCoin, a cryptocurrency for photographers. As soon as the news was announced, Kodak's stock (KODK) jumped more than 60 percent. The Verge reports: KodakCoins will work as tokens inside the new blockchain-powered KodakOne rights management platform. The platform will supposedly create a digital ledger of rights ownership that photographers can use to register and license new and old work. Both the platform and cryptocurrency are supposed to "empower photographers and agencies to take greater control in image rights management," according to the press release. The digital currency is meant to create a new economy for photographers to receive payment and sell work on a secure platform. But while Kodak's proposed blockchain-powered platform and virtual coin sound good on paper, it's not clear why the photography company needs to use blockchain to achieve its goals, rather than just create another social media platform instead. It appears that Kodak, like the other tea and vape companies that received media attention last month for making the abrupt leap to blockchain, could just be trying to capitalize on the current cryptocurrency mania.

Comments

Kodak moment

[Tablizer]

The modern version of a "Kodak moment" is when you realize your crypto-currency just lost all its value.

Re: Kodak moment

[gnick]

$6 is better than $3. Photography's changed a lot since Kodak was at their peak and apparently they haven't kept up.

it's not clear why the photography company needs to use blockchain to achieve its goals

Kodak's stock (KODK) jumped more than 60 percent

Sounds like they achieved their goal.

Interesting.

[msauve]

Can't wait to see what develops.

Re:Interesting.

[SeaFox]

I fear lots of people will get overexposed and end up washed out financially.

Re:Interesting.

[LordKronos]

I fear lots of people will get overexposed and end up washed out financially.

Definitely. This might look like cryptocoin's golden hour, but the market is oversaturated. Every ordinary company is trying frame their product in cryptocoin terms, instead of just staying focused on their core product. Companies keep pulling this crap, but it's only a matter of time until they push it too far and investors see that this shit doesn't pan out they way they say it will. Once one or two fail, get ready to watch the speed at which they all shutter.

Re:Interesting.

[jenningsthecat]

Definitely. This might look like cryptocoin's golden hour, but the market is oversaturated. Every ordinary company is trying frame their product in cryptocoin terms, instead of just staying focused on their core product. Companies keep pulling this crap, but it's only a matter of time until they push it too far and investors see that this shit doesn't pan out they way they say it will. Once one or two fail, get ready to watch the speed at which they all shutter.

Outstanding! In one short paragraph you've packed 11 references to photography: 'golden hour', 'oversaturated', 'frame', 'focused', 'pulling', (two meanings there), 'push', 'pan', (another double entendre), 'speed', and 'shutter'. Bonus points for the references that only someone familiar with film photography and darkroom work would get. Well done!

Re:Interesting.

[elistan]

I predict that soon Acer will rebrand Gateway, formerly Gateway 2000, as Gateway Blockchain.

Re:Interesting.

[ConceptJunkie]

I'll see your prediction and add that "Blockchain" will become the "pumpkin-spice" of technology products.

How the mighty have fallen

[El Cubano]

It is kind of sad to see this. Kodak was once synonymous with photography. Then they developed digital photography, patented the technology, and sat on it for fear of disrupting their lucrative film business. Others eventually developed digital photography as the patents expired and Kodak obstinately clung to their film business. In the end, they went down with their ship and all they had left was some patents, which it turned out weren't worth as much as they thought they were.

I really hope that they turn things around, but this sort of thing is sad, like watching a formerly successful businessman rooting around in the garbage looking for aluminum cans to sell for recycling.

Cryptocurrencies look like they might have some promise, but the way everybody is trying to jump into the space just smacks of a gimmick.

Re:How the mighty have fallen

[El Cubano]

But it is silly to suggest they would have been successful if they went digital sooner. They would have lost anyway. Whatever format they created would not have been able to compete with JPEG at a price point of $0.

That may be true based on where the market is today. However, if you look at where the market was 25 years ago, Kodak decided to leave a vacuum and let others shape the future of photography because they didn't realize that they were looking at the future of photography. Incidentally, JPEG was introduced just about 25 years ago.

Re:How the mighty have fallen

[networkBoy]

PhotoCD was cool in that it had multiple resolutions available for each photo.
That was about it though... even with my employee discount at a retailer the PCD was too expensive to be worth it. I just put an SD card in the scanner (yes, it supported writing PCD format to SD) and did it that way.

neat machine:
SD, USB, CDR, MMC, and photo scanner all tied to a digital projector that exposed the paper.
so it was Film == input only, Paper == output only, everything else was I/O and you could basically go from any to any.

Re:How the mighty have fallen

[spire3661]

MP3 is no longer patent encumbered. Fraunhofer IIS no longer accepts royalty/licensing payments for it.

Now is the time...

[OpenSourced]

Now is the time for BLOCKBUSTER to join in. That name is just begging to be converted to something-crypto-something-blockchain-something.

Re:Now is the time...

[Notabadguy]

Now is the time for BLOCKBUSTER to join in. That name is just begging to be converted to something-crypto-something-blockchain-something.

My new IPO for my company "BLOCKCHAINBUSTER" is about to go public. Get in while you can. It's gonna be 'UUUGE.

Re:In semi-related news ...

[ELCouz]

In other news... new rapper named Blockchain see his popularity increase over 9000!!!!!

Next Hi-Frequency Trading bubble in the making

[Antique Geekmeister]

Because cryptocurrency trading requires significant computational resources to occur quickly, expect the same developers and traders who created hi-frequency trading to invest their time and money in cryptocurrency arbitrage. With the current wildly fluctuating currency prices, it leaves them opportunities similar to those in hi-frequency trading on the NASDAQ and other stock exchanges to engage in precisely the same draining of consumer profit out of cryptocurrency arbitrage that these companies perform in more standard currencies and stocks.

Wow! Very nice

[110010001000]

It closed 116% higher and up another 46% in the after hours market. The Golden Times are here now, and they will never end. You can count on it!

Don't have mod points

[Number42]

I'm not sure the majority on here are old enough to get this.

Re:Don't have mod points

[msauve]

Maybe that can be fixed.

Re: Don't have mod points

[Morphine007]

Stop

Re: Don't have mod points

[dwywit]

Stop, *then* fix, if it's a monochrome blockchain.

Colour blockchains need a bleach process in there, before or with the fix.

Re: Don't have mod points

[MangoCats]

Too late, you're over exposed.

Our stock market's being run by bots.

[rsilvergun]

This pisses me off for two reasons. First, it's incredibly dangerous. Second, I've been sold the idea that the insane profits from the stock market are warranted because the people running it are making tough decisions and that it's their leadership and brains that drive it (and all of modern business) forward. This shoots all kinds of holes in that.

Re:The answer to our problems

[Qzukk]

Better get started on mining your TaxCoin now, returns are due in 4 months!

Shovel rentals

[Khyber]

I saw their brochure. They're renting you a shitty Antminer S3 which you can buy for $1500 flat out for like $3,000+ AND they take half your bitcoin mined.

putting the bandwagon before the horse...

[Anonymous Coward]

In related news, Anonymous Coward Industries has stated it will now be called Anonymous Blockchain.