KODAKCoin Inks Arena Partnership to Store NBA, NHL Photos

Its initial coin offering is still in progress, but a new announcement indicates that the team behind KODAKCoin is working to put the forthcoming cryptocurrency to use.

WENN Digital – the company that licensed the photo-centric KODAK's brand for a cryptocurrency and associated digital rights management platform – announced Monday that it is working with Oak View Group to bridge the sports world with the upcoming KODAKOne platform. The idea is that fans and photographers at the six participating arenas, including the San Antonio Spurs' AT&T Center, can upload and register photos on the site.

"We want to introduce the KODAKOne Platform to a creative audience that we believe will both benefit from its functionality and serve as early adopters," Jan Denecke, CEO of WENN Digital, said in a statement. The focus, he continued, is on "paying photographers fairly and giving them an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a new economy tailored for them, with secure asset rights management built right in."

The platform, KODAKOne, and cryptocurrency, KODAKCoin, accordinghttps://www.kodak.com/us/en/corp/Press_center/KODAK_and_WENN_Digital_Partner_to_Launch_Major_Blockchain_Initiative_and_Cryptocurrency/default.htm to WENN Digital CEO Jan Denecke is "all about paying photographers fairly and giving them an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a new economy tailored for them, with secure asset rights management built right in."

Photographers can register their work and store it on the KODAKOne platform. Then, the community of artists engaging with the platform are able to use the KODAKCoin as a means of payment either for licensing or sale under the protection of an encrypted blockchain that tracks ownership and enforces artist rights to content.

At the six participating sports arenas, fans will be encouraged to upload, register and share their live-event photos or videos on KODAKOne and have the opportunity to be rewarded with payments in KODAKCoin.

Dohnanyi said on the partnership that the venues would provide "groundbreaking access to the world of sport and entertainment." Denecke further added that the arenas were a "natural" place to start given "the millions of fantastic live event photographs generated each year at OVG's Arena Alliance venues."

The OVG Arena Alliance is a membership alliance of world-class venues reaching over 65 million consumers each year combined across major cities in North America. Oak View raised $100 million in a funding round earlier this year.

Prudential Center, home of the New Jersey Devils, image via Shutterstock.