Join us in creating the next revolution in photography
GET UPDATESIntroducing YouPic Blockchain
The world's first decentralized photography platform
Copyright on the blockchain
Make your photos forever yours by attributing your rights on the blockchain. Attach a usage license to allow others to buy them, or make your content completely private.
Licensing with Smart Contracts
Define your own licensing terms by creating smart contracts. Get paid for your work directly from consumers, with no middle men, no cuts and all profit going to you. Combine smart licenses with client-side functions to build new apps on the blockchain.
Fully decentralized and open source
Everything from media registration to copyright dispute handling is decentralized, allowing anyone to integrate existing or new services and platforms with the blockchain. By using a lattice of blockchains together with proof of stake, the network can operate without mining and constantly low transaction fees.
Track your work
Use web crawlers powered by the decentralized copyright ledger to find out more about how your work is used. Detect unauthorized usage, including usage not covered by an existing license.
The photography platform of the future
From Gatekeeping & middleman markup
Brokers act as gatekeepers to the industry and incentivize poor transparency and tracking practices, yet they typically charge a significant commission — sometimes 30-60% — for their claim of making licensing easier to manage and deliver.
To Open decentralized brokerage
YouPic Blockchain connects content creators with content consumers in an open, decentralized way. Any professional or hobbyist photographer can license their work easily and flexibly, including support for existing agents and distribution platforms. There are no royalties or fees for licensing transactions.
From No accountability or usage tracking
Without any way of attributing copyright and existing licenses, it is very difficult to know whether an image online is used in a valid way. People often inadvertedly violate copyright law just by copying a photo found on the internet.
To Usage tracking & Visible copyright
The signatures stored on the blockchain allow anyone to view and use licensing information. Find a photo on the internet? YouPic Blockchain shows you how it can be used. See someone using your content? Use your registration signature for proof of ownership and an easy way of buying a license. Deploying blockchain technology into the photography industry to encode copyright data will increase license visibility, thereby decreasing theft.
From Lack of transparency
Opaque licensing practices are common, with photographers having no way of knowing how and where their content is used in the end. Market fragmentation, exclusivity deals and hidden arrangements can make it difficult to know whether a license is even valid.
To Open and transparent licensing
Every license and transaction is stored on the blockchain, allowing an open view of how and where content can be used. Advanced constructions such as multiple brokers and sub-licenses are implemented through Smart Contracts. Tracking bots that parse and execute these contracts generate detailed statistics regarding both end-usage and license violations.
From Market fragmentation
Information about licensing and copyright is spread among many actors, none of which have the complete picture. Large amounts of content are only known to local organizations, and never reach the outside world.
To Decentralized and unified content platform
YouPic Blockchain will unify content from creators and allows any other platform to connect to and integrate the blockchain. By creating an open platform anyone can use and integrate, this autonomous network will enable creatives access not only to high-quality imagery, but also unique, timely, topical and emotionally engaging content.
Powering the global photography economy
The impact of photography has never been more valuable than it is today.
Every day, millions of photos are sent and licensed around the world.
$110 billion
Size of the global digital photography market by 2021 (Zion Market Research)$4 billion
Size of the global still image market by 2020 (TechNavio)1.2 trillion
Estimated number of photos taken worldwide last yearTechnology
Open source, non-profit and fully decentralized
Lattice of blockchains
YouPic Blockchain uses a design based on a lattice of blockchains, first introduced by Nano. In this design, each account has its own blockchain, and only that account can create blocks on its chain. This makes the network very efficient, since nodes only have to verify incoming blocks and forks never happen during normal operation.
Fast, scalable and flexible
No wastage of electricity due to mining, since everyone mines their own blocks as needed. Proof of work is used solely for its rate-limiting effect. Transaction fees are only needed to incentivize running nodes that store and validate data, and can thus be very low and constant. Users running nodes can stake tokens to vote on forks that do occur, granting them a portion of any incoming transaction fees in return for locking their tokens and securing the network.
Decentralized dispute jury
While the platform takes all possible precautions to prevent copyright misattributions, there may still be cases of disputes regarding the ownership of a photo. For these cases, YouPic Blockchain supports a decentralized jury, where people and AI work together to determine the validity of any disputes that may occur.
Roadmap
Q1 2013
YouPic.com goes live
Q2 2015
Additional funding by well-known investors
Q1 2018
Initial announcement of YouPic Blockchain
Q2 2019
Wide-reaching press and marketing campaign
Q2 2019
Platform development begins
Q1 2021
Public token sale
Q1 2021
Release of test network and partnership program
Q2 2021
Production release of blockchain and base platform
Q3 2021
Finish development of additional platform services
Q4 2021
Improve and scale platform for real-world use
The YouPic Team
Navid Razazi
Co-Founder and CEO
Rimmer Motzheim
Co-Founder and Chief Architect
Gustaf Hector
Head of Growth
Johan Gustafsson
Security, Crypto and Backend
Linus Ek
Frontend Developer
Ambjörn Fagerström
Designer
Alicia Lindström
Senior Community Manager
Lisa Sundell
Community Manager
Pierre Leroy
DeveloperAdvisors
Nick Evans Lombe
15 years executive at GettyImages
Mengmeng Du
Head of Growth, Spotify
Roberto Bonanzinga
Founder, InReach Ventures
Sami Rusani
Chief Revenue Officer, ShipChain
Magnus Dufwa
Smart Contract Developer, ShipChain & Owner Blockalize
Floyd DCosta
Co-Founder, Block Armour & Blockchain Worx SG
Amer Mohammed
Head of Digital Innovation, Stena
Wesley Overklift
Photographer and Brand Strategist