DP #138: Photomarket

[paul-schaaf]

Photomarket

Introduction to the problem

Every day, around 350,000,000 (three hundred fifty million) photos are uploaded to Facebook alone. That is around 4,000 photos a second. (source: https://www.omnicoreagency.com/facebook-statistics/) Photography is flourishing with amazing photographs appearing everywhere. Yet, photographers often do not get the credit they deserve. Social Media allows them to publish their photos but not monetise them. On the other hand, small businesses, bloggers, and alike need great photos because they increase engagement and traffic. (source:http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/photos-generate-engagement-research/) (source:https://corp.wishpond.com/blog/2013/01/10/infographic-the-impact-of-photos-on-facebook-engagement/)

Purpose of the project

Photomarket is here to improve the situation for both sides by offering a marketplace for photos. Its purpose is to give both regular people and photographers a platform to sell their photos to buyers who desperately need them.

Description with an example

You are an amateur photographer with an amazing camera. You love making beautiful photos of your city. However, you are not that good at promoting yourself and your talent and thus have a difficult time getting recognition for your talent. This leaves many photos unused on your computer and makes you feel sad. On the other side, there is a research student. He is good at analysing and making sense of numbers but not photography. Yet, he needs a cover photo for one of his publications about the developments in modern cities. Since he wants to publish his work in a renowned journal, he wants to make sure that he is using a photo that he is allowed to use. Photomarket solves the problem of both persons. You can upload all your beautiful city photos online and receive the recognition and money you deserve for them. The research student can easily buy a photo for his cover page and be sure that he is complying with the law.

How can I access the platform?

APP

The app will be the main gateway for amateur users. They can browse by category, search for artists or tags, upload their own photos, look at their subscriptions (you can subscribe to photographers – photos made by these photographers show up in a feed), and see their profile from which they can access all the photos they have bought. Here is a simple interface I made in PowerPoint with the Browse site active and the Subscription site active:

BROWSER

The browser application offers the same features as the mobile application. It is used for uploading photos that have been edited before or/and have been taken with a camera and not a phone. It will also be used for the Bonus application.

DESKTOP APP

While the app and browser application will be sufficient for many users, a desktop application could be used for high-level editing or downloading big datasets (see Bonus). This is not a high priority feature and could be implemented later. It might not be necessary at all. There already are editing tools such as Lightroom and big data sets could also be downloaded via the browser. Time will tell whether there is a real need for a desktop application.

Photo Search System

Through the search function, users can choose to search for profiles or photos. When searching for photos, they can choose to filter results according to popularity (times bought), trending photos (times bought/time) and newest photos. In addition, they can filter photos according to size, price, and quality.

Requesting Photos

Contacting photographers privately

Users have the option to search for a photographer’s profile and message the photographer with a request to make a specific photo for that buyer. The terms can be negotiated by the photographer and buyer themselves.

Requests Page

Buyers can also post requests for photos or photo bundles on the requests page. This is a page on the platform that is visible to everyone. Here, buyers can request certain photos or photo bundles to be made by sellers. The photographers can upload their photos or take photos they have already uploaded and link them to the requests. To be able to request a photo, you need to be verified to prevent spam/bots. When you submit a request you set the number of photos to request, the price for each/or all together, and a date at which submission of photos closes. Here is a sample interface of the requests page made in PowerPoint (click on photo to make it easier to read):

Buying photos

When a user has found a photo he likes, he can buy it using tokens. The watermark on the photo is then removed and the user receives all rights to the photo (or specified rights).

Pricing of the photos

Whenever you upload a photo, you have the right to assign a price to that photo. You also have the option to sell photo bundles. Prices of the photos are determined solely by supply and demand. Users can choose to change the price of their photos anytime.

Storing the data

Theoretically, all the photos could be stored on each user’s device. In reality, this would hardly be possible due to storage limitations on these devices as the network grows. Hence, the data cannot be stored on individuals’ servers. To keep the data decentralised and secure, it could be stored using a decentralised server such as Filecoin, Sia, or Storj. Potentially, Photomarket could partner with one of these services and negotiate a cheaper price, given that the immense number of photos would significantly increase adoption of either of these relatively new storage platforms.

Covering costs

Naturally, the storage for the data needs to be paid. In addition, the network needs to be maintained and improved. To cover these costs, every photo price could include a small fee. Alternatively, every upload could cost a small fee. This would greatly reduce spam posts on the platform and improve the overall quality of pictures.

Movement of tokens

Tokens will move through the platform through the following action (which might be subject to change):

• Buying and Selling photos
• Submitting reports of photos and penalties
• Tagging and untagging
• Uploading photos

For more info: see Q&A

Bonus: Using photos for Artificial Intelligence applications

Artificial Intelligence applications for photo recognition require large datasets of photos. Photomarket can provide these datasets. Programs using supervised learning can use photos that users have labelled with tags before. Buyers of these datasets can group photos by these tags and purchase them all together.

Q&A

How can a buyer of big data sets know whether all the photos in the dataset are labelled correctly? Could users with bad intentions not simply give pictures wrong tags to destroy the system?

Here again, the power of the community can be used. Users can choose to become taggers with each photo they tag correctly (tag is correct once a certain number of other users give the photo the same tag/confirm the tag of the photo) giving them a small number of tokens (confirming an already existing tag also gives you tokens until the photo has enough confirmed tags). Tags could also be “untagged” should a certain threshold of untags be reached by other users. Then, the user giving the wrong tag will be penalised. Hence, any attempt to destroy the system will be less beneficial than improving it. Helping the market gives more profits every time. Should a photo have several tags, these can be ranked in order of importance with the most important tag being the prevalent object in the photo. How is a user protected from “untag attacks”? Could users with bad intentions not simply visit another user’s account, look at the photos he tagged and untag them? Users of the platform cannot see which photos other users are tagging. In addition, photos to be tagged are given to the taggers randomly, preventing any kind of organised attack.

How do you make sure that photos are actually bought with tokens before downloaded? Couldn’t users simply screenshot the photo?

All photos have watermarks which are removed only when the photo is bought. Photos cannot be found through google searches, preventing accidental or ignorant usage of the photos. Photos can only be found on the website and users agree that if they download a watermarked picture they are committing a crime (There could also be different licences e.g. (“do not use picture commercially” etc.) for different pictures that uploaders can choose from). The watermark on the picture is a code that is linked directly to the uploader of the real photo on the market. If you find a photo with a code online, you can search that code in the market and check whether it is listed on our platform. If it is (and the code is not linked to some other platform that also uses codes on their photos which is unlikely anyway), you can contact us and we will take relevant action. Users submitting a correct report (with the picture they found used without permission) receive a certain number of tokens for their effort.

Couldn’t users pay for one photo, download it and then upload it on their own account?

They could. However, this is a behaviour we do not accept. One approach to punish this behaviour could be to use Photo Recognition Software, once a photo is uploaded it is checked against existing photos. Even modified photos could possibly be recognised by this software. The user uploading already existing photos would then be penalised, for instance, by transferring tokens he owns to owners of the already existing photos. Admittedly, implementing this feature could be costly and complex as the program should be very accurate not to penalise innocent users. In addition, the bigger the market grows the more photos the program would have to iterate through, making the uploading process potentially endless. However, a much simpler and cheaper solution could solve much of the problem. While an account selling photos they do not own, might make a small number of tokens, once it receives enough purchases its photos will appear higher in the ranking next to the “real” photos. Once users recognise the fake photos they can submit a report, including links to the real and fake photo. This report can either be processed manually or by a photo recognition software (The processing power of the software would be significantly lower this time since it is already given the fake photo and real photo and does not have to find the real photo in the database). In addition, becoming a user could require personal information. Misbehaving users would be banned once they upload photos not belonging to them. To make this process easy for the user, Photomarket could collaborate with CIVIC (https://www.civic.com/), allowing for an easy submission of personal data. For a really, really simple solution especially in the early days of the platform when not many photos are available, users can also simply search for the tags of a photo they want to buy. User finds a photo he likes -> user does another search for the tags -> user does not see the same photo -> user can be relatively sure he is buying the real photo. Generally, once a report is processed and the misbehaving user has been penalised, the user who submitted the report receives a certain number of tokens. Users sending wrong reports are penalised to prevent spam. This way, users are always incentivised to improve the system, especially when they would have to make the effort to search for tags in the really, really simple solution to buy the real photo.

What is the “real” photo? How do I know?

The real photo is the photo that is recorded in the blockchain first. To prevent other users from downloading the photo immediately and uploading it again, hoping it is included in the blockchain before the actual real photo, the actual real photo is hidden for some minutes until it is confirmed within the blockchain. Users can then check the upload time of any photo with the public time stamp that photo has. The real photo is the one with the earlier timestamp.

Couldn’t users pay for one photo, thereby removing the watermark and then share it with others for free?

Yes. This could happen and to be honest, I cannot think of a solution to this currently. That said, this is not a problem specific to this platform. You can download pictures on facebook, youtube, and other platforms (may it be legal or illegal) and share it with others. Unless they share it again on our platform (see one of the previous questions), we do not have any control over this. Nonetheless, I assume that many users will want to support their favourite photographers. In addition, businesses using the service will likely buy the photos to comply with the law.

As a seller, can I still upload my photos on other social media too?

You can connect your social media to your Photomarket account so you can be sure you are not penalised for using a photo without having bought it. However, by uploading it on social media, you risk that more people can download your photo for free.

As a seller, can I use the platform to negotiate professional photo shoots?

Although not its main purpose, the best photographers on the website will appear higher in the photo rankings, which gives scouts/recruiters the option to contact them via the platform or using the contact details on that photographer’s profile.

Why is this a good market to build?

The photo market solves a real problem that is present right now. It is not reliant on fantasies of how the future might look like (in contrast to some companies in the crypto world). Instead, it is a project that can be built now. It is simple and feasible and as such, it is a great candidate for one of the early projects for district0x as it can show how markets on district0x look like without making things too complicated. Everyone can understand a marketplace where you can buy and sell photos. Hence, the name: Photomarket. In one year, when the first blockchain companies actually have working products and it is not just about having a great "vision" anymore but a working product, this market can be one of the working products because it is relatively(!) simple to build and something down to earth.

Important Questions raised by others listed here for better understanding of the platform

Original Question by GitHub user "imdying":

what would stop someone downloading 20,000 photos from flickr and uploading them to this system to be first?

The question is asking what stops sellers from uploading already existing photos from other services such as Flickr. Photomarket uses a first-upload-first-get-the-rights-to-the-photo approach. Would this mean that anyone could upload already existing photo under their name and get the rights to that photo? While this could happen on any platform, it is necessary to take a look at how Photomarket handles these issues.

Generally, taking copyrighted photos from another author and using them (without certain modification) for your own (financial) benefit without permission of the author is a crime - no matter which platform you are using. Statutory damages can go up to 150,000$. (source: http://www.whoishostingthis.com/blog/2016/01/27/images-stolen/)

Hence, committing this crime on our platform puts you at significant risk. Photomarket is not an anonymous platform. While you won't necessarily have to submit personal verification details as a buyer, this can easily be a requirement for sellers. KYC does not take much time nowadays and can be done fast by scanning an identification document, sending a photo etc. (This personal data can still be stored decentralised and protected from any access without justification) Photomarket can be a big source of income for the photographers so I assume they will be willing to go through this process as it only makes them more trustworthy too! Certain buyers such as businesses who need to pay special attention to complying with the law will be more likely to buy on our platform, knowing that all the sellers are verified.

It gets better. Let's say you do upload fake pictures. If you manage to sell a lot of them and thereby steal significant profits from the artist, your photos will be ranked high in our search function. This means that more people will see your photo and possibly identify you as a thief! And with your personal information, we can track you down and take legal action.

Should an artist find out that one of his photos are illegally listed on our platform, he can contact us and show us his proof of copyright (just as he would have to do on any other platform) and the photo(s) and account will be taken down and the uploader will possibly be prosecuted.

Edit History

29 August 2017: Added Question and Answer for question by GitHub user "imdying" 29 August 2017: Added Requests Page

Personal Info

District0x-Slack: @paulfection ETH: 0x810cB7F0f94c34F92957CD8227F77C9CB425716a

Appreciate ya, Paul.

[rongomaib]

what would stop someone downloading 20,000 photos from flickr and uploading them to this system to be first?

[ghost]

I really like the mock up and the idea, I think you should look and see if there are any synergies to be had with DP #106

[paul-schaaf]

@imdying Thank you for your question! I included a part in my proposal where I discuss questions by others and included your question and my answer in there!

[paul-schaaf]

@basiccrypto thank you for your feedback! #106 is interesting. Maybe it is something the platform could transform into later. For now, I highly suggest keeping it this way. Why? Adoption. Photographers (as sellers) and the general (probably younger) public with photo needs (as buyers), possibly without much knowledge of the crypto world, are the target group. Hence, I want to make it as simple as possible to start with. They can buy and sell photos. That's it. That is all they have to do. Simple. This also allows makes it easier for developers to actually build the platform. Once this is done, which will still take months of work, we can look into making the service more complex (if needed)

[batmanscode]

I really like this! It's similar to Pickit

[paul-schaaf]

@aaqilaziz thanks for the feedback and mentioning Pickit! I'll get some inspiration from there

[Alexand0x]

@Paulfection Finally getting a chance to sit down and read this. This is one of the strongest proposals I've read thus far and I appreciate how many different angles you've covered. Huge thumbs up from me, would love to build this.

[Alexand0x]

The one general piece of feedback I'd give is that there are opportunities to make use of stronger curation mechanisms. Without too much time spent, I'm imagining a system where regular/staked users can risk reputation in order to settle disputes of plagiarism.

Also worth clarifying - are the tokens mentioned meant to be ETH, DNT, or a newly issued token? I think it makes the most sense if ETH is underwriting all of the purely transactional parts of the marketplace.

[mathos83]

I really like the tagging system - as someone who works with photos as main source for digital image creation, I know that correct tagging is crucial. "I'm looking for an asian couple walking on a sunny summer day for example" - try to google that lol. We had a 50,000 photo bank in our company and to tag it took years, but after that it got priceless. I proposed similar district just today but instead of photos it focuses other digital assests like 3d models and textures. Not as nearly so elaborate description but who knows - If it ever comes to life in any form, it would be powerful to link these together. It could become a priceless combo for digital artist. Good luck!

[Bradymck]

Very cool, I will be discussing this one on the next stream.

[paul-schaaf]

@Alexand0x Thank you for the feedback! Could you elaborate on the curation mechanisms you have in mind? I am not an expert on that and cannot imagine myself how incorporating them would look like.

[paul-schaaf]

@mathos83 Thank you for the feedback! Mass collaboration is definitely something I hope will be possible and I like your idea too! I was not aware that this "tagging-market" could also be used for other digital assets. Great food for thought!

[paul-schaaf]

@mckmuze thank you and that is awesome! Looking forward to it.

[rongomaib]

you wouldn't need to store the actual photo on the blockchain, just the hash.

[nybblexyz]

Hi all, finding these photos can be part of DP #133 as using domain portal photos.---
categories could be under ..trending.photos *.nature.photos.---

[Bradymck]

I just mentioned your proposal on another one that is similar to yours. It is closed because it's similar to yours but I was wondering if you were looking for collaborators or wanted to move forward with your project. If so, take a look at their proposal and see my last comment: https://github.com/district0x/district-proposals/issues/248

They are active in the community and I'm looking to encourage collaboration and realistic ways of moving great ideas like your forward.

In my comment I mention using a model Aragon is using for a newsletter to get the ball rolling on a bootstrapped DAO that can migrate to our d0xINFRA tools when ready. LEt me know, would love to connect you to others and help you build a framework out to get these ideas rolling today even before a dApp is developed. Much of this can be done here on github with bounties and migrate to a DAO/dApp later.

[Bradymck]

Hey there,

I'm not sure if you're aware but we recently launched a new bounty to migrate your proposals to the actual District Registry: https://registry.district0x.io/

We're replacing the old voting app with the registry. Let me know if you need help but I would love to see you migrate this over so you can claim your DNT.

It does take a 10,000 DNT submit to submit your proposal but this gives you an extra 2000 you can stake in the registry beyond the deposit amount.

Hit me up on Telegram or Discord if you need help or have questions.

Telegram: https://t.me/district0x/75217 Discord: https://discord.gg/P9RQejv

PS, please excuse the canned response. I am encouraging everyone here to start migrating so they can claim their 12000 DNT.

[Bradymck]

Hey there! We have a hackathon going this month and some of the participants had an interest in building a marketplace like this. Are you stil interested in seeing this built or want to collaborate with others looking to build something like this? If so, drop by our Discord: https://discord.gg/d0x

Cheers!

[henrimahal]

✨ @paul-schaaf

The community is thinking about this again. But simplified, and for licenses in general (photo, film, music, sounds, ...). I checked your website you r building DeFi now thats sick.

[paul-schaaf]

@Bradymck @henrimahal hey guys! yeah Im currently more active in the Solana ecosystem and defi so not interested in building out this idea anymore. but anyone may take any ideas Ive had here and use them if they want to make this happen :)