Create Trust with Cryptocurrency
This is Part 2 of our series titled, “How To Leverage the Blockchain and Grow Your Business”. In Part 1 we explained the framework and operations of the “blockchain”, a public ledger that verifies, holds, and displays all transactions in one place on a peer-to-peer network — that can operate in a decentralized manner, independent of financial institutions. Proceeding from that foundation we can now delve into how to create trust with cryptocurrency.
There are vast opportunities of attracting new customers, forge stronger ties with existing customers, and experience growth for businesses who build and leverage trust with cryptocurrency. In many cases a business can strengthen their competitive edge through adoption of cryptocurrency and/or the blockchain technologies.
Remember, cryptocurrency and blockchain systems unveil a world without intermediaries or third parties that traditionally facilitate transactions (and trust). In fact, often the traditional role of third parties is to add trust and integrity to transactions, especially between unknowns. It should be noted the blockchain does not create or eliminate trust, it merely transforms the facilitator of the trust from the third party middleman to the technology (via a distributed immutable ledger) itself. Hence the spoils of trust, customer loyalty, etc. goes to the branding behind the cryptocurrency and blockchain (its protocols and ecosystem). Thus for businesses a prudent strategic goal is to align their business systems’ needs with the blockchain and even create a cryptocurrency to maximize those benefits and strengthen the relationships with customers and suppliers — the outcome of which will be increased trust, transparency and business growth.
We’re seeing this exact business model rolled out today with established brands like Kodak now working to create trust with cryptocurrency and leveraging the blockchain to grow their business worldwide. Kodak has launched their own cryptocurrency they’ve called KODAKCoin. It is part of a new blockchain initiative called KODAKOne, an image rights management platform. Kodak’s solution solves the problem of unlicensed and unauthorized online use of photographs, a long-standing pain point and challenge for professional photographers. Using the blockchain KODAKOne will be protecting photographs online and creating an “encrypted digital ledger of rights ownership for photographers.” Photographers can add new images as well as archive images to this blockchain system.
While the Kodak blockchain keeps the ledger of the photographs, Kodak has crawler bots that search the internet for the use of the photos of their member customers. Properly licensed images are linked to an IP address, so crawler bots won’t incorrectly flag purchased images. If the crawler bot detects an image that wasn’t properly licensed, the Kodak blockchain assists photographers in getting those sites to properly and lawfully license the image they’re using. The participating photographers receive payment for their work with Kodak’s branded currency KODAKCoin — and the entire process takes place inside Kodak’s blockchain ecosystem.
The cryptocurrency KODAKCoin allows participating photographers to take part in a new global economy for photography, receive payment in this new digital and branded currency — for licensing their work immediately upon sale, and sell their work confidently on a secure blockchain platform. Kodak has learned how to create trust with cryptocurrency. When transactions are executed and settled on a distributed ledger visible to all, counterparties don’t need to have an established trust relationship intermediary, traditional layers of middlemen and friction.
While Kodak was built on the technology that brought photo printing to consumers, now, Kodak has adapted their business to further that mission while acknowledging that today, photos are valued not as artefacts but as a part of a storytelling function that is almost wholly digital. The goal here is to serve photographers worldwide in enhance security, monetization of their work, and achieve payment efficiency, all while improving Kodak brand awareness globally with their targeted audience. Kodak reaps the benefits of being a trusted advisor and is considered a strategic partner with photographers, and this opens up new avenues of customers for Kodak operating on their blockchain. Well done Kodak!
Not every business needs to develop its own blockchain ecosystem to extract value from this new technology. But every business should be thinking about where they benefit most from it. Trust is an imperative part of any brand’s value proposition and leveraging the blockchain and cryptocurrency provides the opportunity to increase that aspect of the business to customer (and business to vendor) relationship.
At Element Zero, we are building a platform that allows businesses to develop, customize and launch their own stablecoin, for free. The Element Zero groundbreaking Stability Protocol is an entirely new way to enforce stability that is then supported by a robust Liquidity Protocol as well as built-in features such as escrow and arbitration. We believe in helping organizations create a payment solution that positively impacts their customer relationships that they’ve worked hard for.
