Visibility and digital art: Blockchain as an ownership layer on the Internet

• Author: Glenn Parry,Trent McConaghy,Masha McConaghy,Greg McMullen,David Holtzman
• Date: 01 September 2017
• Published date: 01 September 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/jsc.2146

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Strategic Change. 2017;26(5):461–470. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jsc © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 461

DOI: 10.1002/jsc.2146

Abstract

Visibility of digital art and its ownership can be achieved using blockchain technology as part of

a broader soluon for the idencaon, aribuon, and payment for digital work. A case study

is provided of a rm using the Bitcoin blockchain as part of an integrated soluon to idenfy and

authencate ownership of digital property. An integrated ownership ledger allows for secure

aribuon, transfer, and provenance of digital property. Blockchain technology enables limited‐

edion digital property, while Internet‐scale web crawl and machine learning shows where and

how works are being used on the Internet.

1 

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 INTRODUCTION

Numerous debates in legal, business, and polical domains have arisen

over copyright protecon on the Internet (Parry, Busnza, & Vendrell‐

Herrero, 2014). Illegal copying is a signicant issue, but in this work

we begin with the premise that many people would pay for their use

of digital property if a simple process was available. When a digital le

is available on the Internet, metadata is usually absent regarding who

owns the content, if it is possible to use the work, any limitaons, and

a mechanism for payment due. In parallel, the creators and rights hold‐

ers cannot see how, where, and how much their work is being used.

There is a need to establish clear ownership of digital content and use

rights, and facilitate payment processes where required.

This arcle examines how blockchain technology has been used as

part of a broader soluon for idencaon, aribuon, and payment

for digital work. The study presented in this arcle focuses upon digi‐

tal art as digital arsts face challenges when their work appears on the

Internet; their work may be shared widely, but oen they receive no

payment and their work is frequently not properly aributed. A single

case study has been created through a process of co‐operave wring

with members of a company, BigchainDB GmbH (hps://bigchaindb.

com/). BigchainDB has developed a soluon called ascribe, which uses

a distributed ledger as a register of ownership and record, providing

provenance of work as part of a broader soluon that includes iden‐

caon of work in use on the Internet.

The arcle proceeds as follows. First, an overview is given of the

theory relang to visibility and how distributed ledger technology may

be used to facilitate visibility, parcularly of ownership and copyright.

Second, an examinaon of intellectual property is presented. Third,

we examine the context of the research, the art market, and digital

art in parcular. The research methodology is followed with the case

example, which describes the ascribe soluon. The work ends with a

discussion, conclusions, and future work.

2 

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 THE NEED FOR BETTER VISIBILITY

Innovaons in informaon technology play a key role in changing how

providers and customers interact and how providers gain compeve

advantage in markets (Gaorna, 1998). Flows of goods in commer‐

cial supply chains are reliant on ows of informaon. Historically, for‐

ward ows of informaon give details of the product or service being

exchanged, and reverse ows are used to track asset transfers and

synchronize producon and demand (Alshawi, 2001).

As the key driver of decision making, data is crical to the survival

of supply chains (Aaran, 2007). The linking of useful informaon to

assets, and the owing of that informaon to those who need it within

a network, gives individuals and organizaons visibility. Building on the

classicaons for visibility from the literature (Caridi, Crippa, Perego,

Visibility and digital art: Blockchain as an ownership

layer on the Internet*

Masha McConaghy1 | Greg McMullen2 | Glenn Parry2 | Trent McConaghy1 | 

David Holtzman1

1 BigchainDB GmbH, Berlin, Germany

2 Bristol Business School, University of the

West of England, United Kingdom

Correspondence

Glenn Parry, Bristol Business School,

University of the West of England, Frenchay

Campus, Bristol BS16 1QY, United Kingdom

Email: glenn.parry@uwe.ac.uk

* JEL classicaon codes: B41, D83, M21, Z10.