Episode Details

The idea of using the Bitcoin blockchain to represent and track the ownership of off-chain assets is almost as old as Bitcoin itself. One of the startups that is pursuing this vision is Berlin-based Ascribe, which allows creators to register (‘ascribe’), transfer and archive digital art.

Ascribe CTO joined us for a fascinating discussion of their ambitious goals to enable a so-far elusive secondary market for digital art, help creators monetize their work and ultimately retrofit an entire ownership layer to the internet.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Why ownership in the internet is broken
• How Ascribe wants to realize the vision of Project Xanadu of an internet with bi-directional links and baked-in copyrights
• How the SPOOL (Secure Public Online Ownership Ledger) protocol works
• The components of the Ascribe tech stack
• How Ascribe will crawl and similarity-match the entire internet to retrofit an internet of ownership
• Why Ascribe focuses first on the digital art market

Episode links:

• Ascribe
• SPOOL Protocol
• Cointemporary
• Project Xanadu Wikipedia
• Rewiring the Internet for Ownership with Big Data and Blockchains
• Slides

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/078