Numbers Protocol attempts to build a decentralized fidelity media network of blockchain + photography + verification to solve the copyright problem of creators and the pain points of the public in pursuit of authenticity.
Written by: JC
Digital media such as WeChat, Douyin, and Weibo have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. However, the digital media in the context of the Web2 era has deficiencies worthy of attention, such as non-traceability, non-inspection, easy infringement, centralized censorship of content, malicious tampering, and so on. Approximately 2.5 million pictures are infringed every day in the world, and the average daily economic loss is as high as 600 billion.
This year’s hot NFT market solves the problem of ownership of digital assets, but it is far from enough. Who is the real creator? Can I query the background information of digital assets? How to track and verify? We need an environment that can guarantee the authenticity and integrity of digital images and the copyright of creators. Numbers Protocol was born to solve this pain point.
What is Numbers Protocol
Numbers Protocol is a decentralized picture network governed by users. It uses IPFS to store data, so that each registered picture or video bears the creator’s signature, ownership certificate, time and space information, and complete transaction records, making the picture or video traceable , Be verified, protect the copyright of the creator, provide a verifiable platform for authenticity, and make it possible to monetize the digital image assets of Web3.
So how does Numbers Protocol do it? Let us look at its operating mechanism .
- The asset owner registers or updates the history of the asset in the decentralized image network through the Capture APP, and puts the work on the Capture Club.
- Absenteeism verification transactions, metadata containing sensitive personal information (geographical location, shooting equipment, etc.) is stored in the decentralized data storage protocol IPFS that requires permission control, and insensitive metadata is stored in the Ethereum and ThunderCore blockchain (later Will increase BSC/SOL). Protect the privacy of users.
- Buyers pay for digital image assets at Capture Club, and original asset owners and network verifiers receive rewards.
The ultimate goal of Numbers Protocol is the fidelity media network, so that everyone can freely create verifiable digital image assets. To achieve this goal, Numbers has developed three tools and two applications.
Three tools
Capture App — the first blockchain camera application created for Web3, the first NFT camera application, and the first digital wallet dedicated to storing image assets. The experience is no different from ordinary photography applications, but the ownership of the photo and the background information (including the creator, latitude and longitude, and timestamp) of the photo can be recorded at the same time as the photo is taken.
Seal API — Provide developers with rich API settings and friendly interfaces to create new ecosystem applications.
Trace Site — Read the website of the built-in information of the picture and the record on the chain, including the original author, creation time, and owner, which can help creators declare copyright.
Two applications
Capture Club — the first NFT market to provide end-to-end fidelity. Creators can easily upload photos or videos taken from Capture App, helping them update records on the blockchain to protect copyright. Buyers can purchase works through digital currency or credit card payment, lowering the entry barrier for non-cryptocurrency enthusiasts and expanding the target group.
NFT Search Engine — Users can upload a NFT picture or video to view historical records, including the number of over-cast copies, which can help users check the authenticity and uniqueness of NFTs. With the support of Protocol Lab and NFT Scan, it is the first content-based search engine with a certain moat.
Technology Architecture
- Storage: IPFS/Filecoin
- Content verification: C2PA
- NFT: Ethereum and ThunderCore (BSC/SOL to be developed)
& Completeness: IOTA
operation status
- API V1 was released, which reached 1 million usage after 9 months and stored more than 3 million pictures and videos.
- The Capture App was launched, and it had a total of more than 10,000 downloads in more than 90 countries within 4 months.
- As a major technical partner, it cooperated with Sarling Lab, Stanford University and Reuters to participate in the Starling 78-days Project, recording the process of the transfer of power to the US president.
Profit model
Numbers Protocol uses a combination of free and paid methods.
Target user groups:
- Record Life
- News media and IP protection
- Content creators and supporters
Free: Capture APP, Trace Site
Photos or videos taken through Capture App, even if uploaded to third-party digital media such as facebook and instagram, can be verified on Trace Site through built-in metadata, which protects the copyright of creators. Adopt a free model, provide a new image copyright protection scheme for third-party digital media, quickly promote products to the market, and gain a large number of users. The objects of cooperation include but are not limited to NFT market, Web3.0 storage, social media platform, image service provider.
Pay:
- Seal API: Basic functions are free, and each call to advanced functions costs 0.01-2 US dollars.
- Applications within the ecosystem: 0.05% network service fee.
Token mechanism
NUM Token is the native functional token of the protocol, which can be used to pay for service fees in the decentralized image network, incentivize users to store images and verify the integrity of content
Token application scenarios
Ways for users to participate in the agreement to obtain token rewards
- Create or consume images with complete information
- Reputable industry experts verify the credibility of the image
- Ordinary users vote to verify the credibility of the image
- Pledge
Among them, 22.8% of the tokens are used as incentives for the development of the ecosystem, but in the extreme case of the system being attacked and failed, the community will vote to determine the use of the tokens.
investor
The investment lineup is luxurious, and the seed round financing of 1 million US dollars and the private equity round financing of 5 million US dollars have been completed.
Investment institutions: 1. Protocol Labs (Filecoin) 2. DAOMaker (Numbers Protocol public offering will be held on the platform on November 10) 3. Binance 4. National Development Fund Management Committee of the Executive Yuan
Investors: 1. Steve Chen, co-founder of YouTube; 2. Phil Chen, founder and general partner of Race Capital, HTC (release blockchain mobile phone); 3. Kvein Lin, co-founder of Twitch (game video streaming platform) 4. Chris Wang, co-founder of ThunderCore
team
Tammy Yang -Founder and CEO, PhD in particle physics from the University of Manchester, good at mathematics, machine learning and deep learning.
Bofu Chen -Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Master of Computer and Information Systems from Cheng Kung University, one of the top five open source developers in Taiwan, has many years of work experience in data engineering, embedded systems, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things.
From Linkedin, the two founders have founded the artificial intelligence company DT42 together since 2016.
risk
Moral Hazard
Users are free to publish photos and videos in advance, including unethical material.
In response to this problem, CaptureClub currently uses a creator gallery application mechanism, and only users who pass the review are eligible to upload pictures.
The team may also formulate content publishing rules and adopt a community governance approach to enable community members to vote to remove unethical materials. Then this approach has a predictable hysteresis. Especially when a large number of perpetrators exist, it may be difficult to deal with.
Based on team members who have many years of background in the artificial intelligence industry, the team may use computer vision technology to replace humans for identification and operation.
Privacy risk
When photographic assets are displayed on the platform, sensitive personal information will not be displayed. However, after the buyer pays and obtains the ownership of the picture, he can check the creator’s geographic location, equipment used, and other information. This feature has also caused some news media workers to worry, because the location of some photos is not suitable for disclosure.
The team may consider opening up a new feature that allows creators to choose whether to display sensitive personal information to buyers, and differentiate pricing based on the degree of information disclosure.
Technology risk
Trace Site and Seal API are currently only open to NFTs and news media partners, and will be tested in the community after the testnet goes online.
Summarize
Numbers Protocol’s blockchain+photographic+verification decentralized fidelity media network has great innovation, which solves the copyright problem of creators and the pain points of the public in pursuit of authenticity. Currently, there are few competing products in the encryption market. The team also has many years of entrepreneurial experience in artificial intelligence and blockchain, which is a Web3 project worthy of attention.
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