Crypto Frontline

According to its 2017 annual report, the United States-based company – Kodak, is set to release its own cryptocurrency. The actual name will be KodakCoin and the whole system should be developed by WENN Digital. The ICO had been announced since early January 2018 and at that time KodakCoin was told to be a “photo-centric cryptocurrency, to empower photographers and agencies to take greater control in image rights management”, as the Kodak.com was stating.

Why Kodak wants to develop its own cryptocurrency?

The company wants to use the blockchain technology in order to create and an encrypted ledger which will store all rights ownership for photographers. Using the platform, they could also license their work.

The CEO of WENN Digital, Jan Deneke had stated the following:

“Engaging with a new platform, it is critical photographers know their work and their income is handled securely and with trust, which is exactly what we did with KODAKCoin.”

As Coindesk had also reported at the end of January 2018, the KodakOne platform ICO had been delayed by a few weeks and it still had not taken place. However, according to the deal, Kodak is set to receive 3 million KodakCoins when the ICO will take place.

A “light paper” had also been recently more than a week ago by the KodakCoin team and the document was questioning whether the assets will be classified as securities by public regulators, which will pose some trading restrictions as a result.

It seems like regulatory concerns are keeping the ICO on-hold. However, the platform Kodak wants to develop could be appealing to amateur and professional photographers.

The news comes after some good news related to the ICO market, with South Korea rumored to lift its ban imposed last year. The following month will be very active in terms of ICO and also, a regulatory framework might be on track for implementation.

Whether regulation will have a positive impact or not, we cannot say at the present time. What we can say, though, is that it will definitely be much harder for ICO scams to keep going on with their illicit businesses.