The Photochain ICO is live with their website showing that they've already managed to sell 41 million tokens out of a 180 million hardcap.
https://photochain.io
The stock photography market is vast and appears to be growing on what often feels like is a daily basis. The sheer amount of money that is spent in this market defies belief, so the idea of using cryptocurrency and the blockchain does make a lot of sense. That is where we find Photo Chain coming into play and if they are able to offer a wide range of images for a very low price then it is easy to see how it could prove to be a worthwhile investment.
What is PhotoChain?
The aim of the project is to provide both buyers and sellers of stock photography the opportunity to conduct business without having to go through a third-party that has a tendency to take a rather large percentage. In fact, a number of pre-existing websites end up only giving the actual photographer approximately 25% of the final price whereas the team behind PhotoChain want to give 95% to the owner, which is a huge increase.
Furthermore, as it relies on the blockchain it also means that there are faster payment times, transactions take next to no time at all, and ultimately the verification process is also done in next to no time at all. Overall, if they are able to deliver with their promises, then this could be a potential winner for blockchain technology.
The Technical Aspect of PhotoChain
Looking at it all from a technical perspective, what we see is that they have created a decentralized app for the blockchain that is based on the Ethereum network. They also use IPFS (Interplanetary File System) in order to fully secure the data that is on their network at all times.
The entire system is decentralized as not just one single location or database holds all of the photographs. This helps to bolster the security since it makes everything less susceptible to attacks being successful and talking of security, each image retains its copyright due to it appearing on the blockchain where the information cannot be altered.
They are also seeking to have a P2P marketplace whereby artists can interact directly with potential buyers and even set their own prices for their work. People can then also take advantage of the review and rating systems so they are able to identify those individuals, or companies, that can be trusted which is always a huge problem online.
Of course, all of the different interactions are completed via Smart Contracts just to give that final layer of security as well as making sure that there is no fraud on the system.
The Advantages of PhotoChain
There are various advantages associated with the project to be aware of and perhaps the main one has to be the way in which the owners of the images are paid substantially more for their work. Thanks to this, they can always reduce the prices making their work more affordable for the individual and they will still be earning more money than they would be elsewhere.
As was mentioned earlier, removing the third-party is also going to help to speed up the transactions as well as make the transition smoother than ever before. There is also the added level of trust that comes with trading directly with the actual owner of the images, and with the copyright being secured it also gives the photographer some added incentives to use this platform over and above anything else.
The Financial Aspect and the PhotoChain ICO
For the financial side of things, then the token that they have created is called PHT’s and they are an ERC20 token meaning you can use any Ethereum based wallet in order to store this digital currency.
The company notes that there is a hard cap of 230 million tokens being produced and 79% of them being made available during the ICO which equates to 179,000,000 tokens. They are also able to accept both BTC and ETH during the ICO but you need to be aware that they have decided on a minimum investment of 0.2 ETH which does have the potential to put some small investors off the idea of getting involved.
Throughout this period, they are planning on creating an exchange rate of 1 PHT equating to $0.12 providing you with some insight as to how they value their project and company. This is certainly not above the normal kind of levels for this type of project, so they appear to be quite sensible in their approach.
Finally, if you are in the United States, then you are going to be excluded from all of this, so do take note if that is the case.
Overall Conclusion About PhotoChain and the ICO
There is no doubt that the product and service that they have made available via their new app is well thought out and it does have real potential. You can immediately see how they would be able to draw in photographers and artists simply because of providing them with 95% of the total price as opposed to something around the 25% mark.
Also, if the prices are kept low, thanks to there being no third-party, then it is also easy to see how people would feel drawn to getting their stock images from this source as they should be substantially cheaper than elsewhere. This is often one of the amazing advantages associated with the blockchain in that it does drive costs down with the consumer being the one that benefits.
So, the question now is whether or not you should consider investing in this product and the answer has to be undoubtedly, yes. The reason is simply because of the potential, and if the 0.2 ETH minimum investment has not put you off, then this is something that should be carefully considered when you are next looking at expanding your portfolio.
Ultimately, we are always going to need stock images, so why not take advantage of blockchain technology and deal directly with the people behind the images while saving money at the same time?
Website: https://photochain.io
Whitepaper: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C4UPA9-9o2cOLJOEYMIVwN_Fi3Ebtn2YcRua58hQ7_0/edit