Over the course of the last decade, in particular, digital media has changed almost every aspect of our lives and business. YouTube has become a haven for original content creators, while finddigitalmagazines.co.uk has made reading any digital magazine on our iPads as easy as it can possibly be. The likes of Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video are almost on the verge of running traditional broadcast TV channels out of business as well. All of these are clear signs that digital media has indeed revolutionized modern lives and businesses. However, this digital revolution is not without its own share of challenges either and one of the biggest challenges here is the extremely difficult job of both promoting the growth of popular online platforms, as well as protecting the rights of the consumers and the content creators on these platforms. As it turns out, blockchain is the solution to this conflict that could change everything, and for the better.
The blockchain is the Natural Democratic Evolution of Payment Systems
The thing about blockchain payment systems is that it is not owned by any one person or company, therefore, the control over each and every transaction that occurs is decentralized and, consequently, discreet. There is no third party involved in a deal made via blockchain, unlike any other transaction system in the world at the moment. This democratic and discreet nature of the blockchain ledger is exactly what can solve a major chunk of the privacy and rights management issues currently being faced by content creators and consumers on online platforms.
Understanding Blockchain Transactions
Nowadays, blockchain technology is often associated with Bitcoin, but it is just the major cryptocurrency that is using the technology, not the only one. There’s also Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Dash and many other cryptocurrencies that use it. It can be considered a kind of digital ledger, which is made up of multiple batches (aka blocks) of online transactions, all linked to each other like a chain. The verification of the payment process is cryptographically signed and protected in the secure database of “blocks.” As no data regarding the nature of the purchase or that of the buyer or seller is collected via a third-party middleman, all the transactions are secure and discreet deals that stay only in between the two parties involved.
How Blockchain Can Protect Consumer Rights in the Digital World
When we buy a song on a digital media platform, we are almost always given a license for limited use for a limited time and not actual ownership of the copy. This is where a physical disc differs from their digital counterparts because you can pass the physical copy to someone else if you want to, but you cannot do so at the moment with digital content. One of the main reasons as to why we can’t do that is because the current technology in place cannot keep track of every digital copy if it is no longer bound to the original buyer. Blockchain technology can end this issue with customer rights by digitally maintaining the ownership history of every copy of the digital content in question, therefore, giving back power to the consumers.
How Blockchain Can Protect the Content Creator’s Rights in the Digital World
Piracy is a huge problem even today as a large number of people around the world continue to consume unlicensed and illegal digital content by downloading paid content without paying for it. This jeopardizes the existence of artists, businesses, and content creators because they don’t get paid for their work. Blockchain technology can actually be used to fight piracy and illegal use by “fingerprinting” the content. This will allow content creators to immediately detect any illegal copies of their work on online platforms and take appropriate measures to have them removed. This is why pirated movies on YouTube are not as abundant as they used to be.
Of course, there are still kinks in the technology and its application at the moment, as made evident by the infamous theft of Ethereum worth $50 million, back in 2016. Nevertheless, the security and the decentralized nature of blockchain is inevitably the future catalyst of digital media which will change it forever.