JAAK - Building a Decentralized Marketplace for Media

Now hiring on Ethlance

In this month’s edition of Now Hiring on Ethlance, we take a look at a media distribution project hailing from London, JAAK.

A Look Behind the Curtains

After flying under the radar in stealth mode for nearly 2 1/2 years, we finally got a glimpse into what the JAAK project has in store with their announcement of MΞTA and the MΞTA Initiative at EDCON just two weeks ago.

MΞTA is a decentralized, open network for organizations to capture, store, verify and communicate commercial metadata. Built on a stack of Ethereum smart contracts and the Swarm decentralized storage platform, JAAK aims to modernize the way in which creators and media companies exchange, share, and distribute their digital rights by providing mechanisms for storage, tracking, and micro-licensing; all verifiable on the blockchain.

The MΞTA Initiative is a composed of a group of media and entertainment companies that have committed to collaborating with JAAK to test, experiment, and explore the opportunities presented by the use of Ethereum blockchain technology in their respective industries. JAAK aims to develop 3 different pilots over the coming months with members of the MΞTA Initiative, with more details to come soon.

Selected for Techstars Accelerator

Adding to their recent momentum, the JAAK team also announced that they have been invited to take part in the first ever Techstars Music Accelerator. In preparing for the launch, Techstars partnered with Sony Music, Warner Music Group, Harmonix Music Systems, Sonos Music Systems, Silva Artist Management, Q Prime Artist Management, Young Guru’s Era of the Engineer and Bill Silva Entertainment to provide capital, business development, and advisory services to the selected music technology startups.

What’s Next?

In the short term, JAAK will focus on developing their initial pilot programs with members of the MΞTA initiative and prepare for the Techstars showcase in mid-May, where they will be presenting their project to a room full of entertainment industry executives and investors. They are looking forward to unveiling some of their pilot partners and collaborations in due time.

With an Alpha release planned for later this year and a crowdsale potentially to follow, you can expect to hear more from the JAAK team soon.

About The Team

Founded by Vaughn McKenzie, Freddie Tibbles, and Viktor Tron; JAAK is a small team of 9. Their headquarters is in London, but they have team members located all over the world, working remotely. They are passionate about music, entertainment, and all things Ethereum. While chatting with the team, they cited Colony, Swarm, Status, Ownage, and FirstBlood as a few of the projects they are most excited about.

Open Positions

JAAK is currently seeking a talented Solidity developer looking for a fun but focused work environment where they can have a hand in building the future of digital rights management and distribution. If this sounds like a fit for you, check out their open listing on Ethlance here.