NEM Ventures has announced a strategic investment in SharpShark, a blockchain-powered timestamping solution. 

By harnessing blockchain technology, SharpShark enables creators to protect their copyrights, while enabling the transfer and tokenisation of intellectual property, and the auto monitoring of violations. 

Co-Founder and General Partner at NEM Ventures, the venture capital and investment arm of the NEM blockchain ecosystem, Kailin O’Donnell, said:

“Existing timestamping solutions have fallen short and copyright deposits are extremely costly. SharpShark’s digital timestamping service records artwork, aiming to protect creators’ moral rights to their work by detecting plagiarism and copyright infringement. 

“We believe that all makers should have full control over their creations, and are aligned with SharpShark’s mission to create a fair and equitable solution for protecting intellectual property.”

SharpShark is built on Symbol by NEM, and provides a decentralised solution to protect text and image copyrights. It has been designed for creators ranging from writers, academics and journalists, to photographers, artists and designers.

The solution publishes the digital signature of the text and images to the Symbol blockchain alongside author details to prove ownership, remaining fully GDPR compliant. 

SharpShark was founded by Sasha Ivanova, an IT engineer and award-winning writer, and Valeriia Panina, a crypto native content designer and former Managing Editor of an analytical agency. 

Discussing the news SharpShark CEO and Co-Founder, Sasha Ivanova, said:

“As long-standing members of the blockchain community, we’ve followed the NEM project for years, and the Symbol blockchain suits perfectly for intellectual property management. 

“Symbol has a layered architecture that enables trustlessness, and performance optimisation, which was a natural fit for our solution. We’re excited to work with the NEM Ventures team to further develop our product, with the aim of making copyright and intellectual property protection more accessible and equitable.”

While, SharpShark Co-Founder and Product Designer, Valeriia Panina, added:

“Unfortunately, current copyright laws are outdated and ineffective. In fact, The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works was passed 134 years ago, with the last alterations made in 1971. Currently, the copyright symbol (©) makes no difference – but it should!  Our solution caters to the digital era, at a time when an upgrade to intellectual property laws is paramount.” 

AYO.NEWS says:

The IP protection issue is one that has proven intractable in the digital age so far. And, while it’s absolutely true that blockchain platforms offer a fantastic way to record, track and monitor IP, serious problems will remain. 

Specifically, as we’ve discovered here at AYO.NEWS, it’s one thing discovering your original content has been stolen, but quite another getting anything done about it, especially if you’re dealing with multiple global jurisdictions. 

Will SharpShark actually help individual creatives and small businesses? We doubt it. But it might  become another tool in the arsenal of big corporations. 

Blockchain-based platforms are also being rolled out for use in the music industry. Earlier this year London-based Ditto announced Bluebox – a blockchain recording solution promising greater transparency and higher royalty collection rates, while Bitfury Surround, SoundVault, CJ OliveNetworks, Warner Music Group, and Evershare.io are also employing blockchain tech to manage music rights. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

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