OST Invests in Unsplash — to Create the new Currency for Photography — $OST @Unsplash

Unsplash and OST team up to reinvent, decentralize, and democratize photography.

Today is an exciting day for Simple Token, “OST” — and for the entire blockchain community — as we are announcing OST’s investment in Unsplash, the world’s leading photography platform. Unsplash served more than 5.4 Billion photo views in January, up more than 300% from 12 months ago. Together we are going to tokenize these billions of photo events, bring blockchain to the mainstream, and create the new currency for photography.

Unsplash may not be a household name (yet) but Unsplash photos are found everywhere. If you’ve read a blog or Medium post, viewed a Twitter cover page, worked in Trello or Google Slides, or just browsed the web and used your favorite apps, chances are you’ve come across Unsplash photos — 2083 Unsplash photos are viewed online every second.

Unsplash is the undisputed market leader in high quality, free to use, digital photography. 24,550 developers integrate the Unsplash API to make high-resolution photos available to their users and in their apps to the tune of 5.7 billion API requests and counting. Just last week Unsplash announced full integration of its photo search for writers here on Medium.

OST and Unsplash will tokenize these billions of photo views and turbocharge the Unsplash mission to democratize the market for high quality professional digital photography.

OST is teaming up with Unsplash because we believe in the team, we love the immensely valuable product and community they have already developed, and we want to help enable their vision. Three years ago Unsplash founders Mikael Cho (CEO), Stephanie Liverani, and Luke Chesser, recognized that digital photography will evolve differently from print photography: more decentralized, more distributed, more fair, and more open. In the print world walled gardens and pay-per-use ruled the day; in the digital world reach and influence opens up a whole new world of possibilities. In the print world a small group of professional photographers made money selling their photos; in the digital world everyone’s a creative and exposure is the new currency.

By setting images free, Unsplash has created exponentially more value for more photographers vs. pay-per-use stock photography marketplaces. Unsplash helps photographers get noticed, distribute their works, build their reputations, grow their influence, and drive their businesses.

Today, a photo featured on Unsplash is seen more than a photo on any other platform. More than on Instagram. Photographers from all over the world have contributed over 400,000 photos to Unsplash, moving hundreds of millions of creative acts forward, while each photo serves as a living billboard for the power of the medium and the talent of the creator.

The growth rate of Unsplash is staggering; Unsplash photo views and downloads are up 1000% over the past 2 years. In the surest sign that the Unsplash model of setting images free is having an impact and disrupting markets, earnings per photographer on pay-per-download stock photography marketplaces has been cut in half during that same period. A new currency for photography is primed to emerge.

Blockchain technology is a perfect fit for Unsplash. The existing online stock marketplaces simply brought the old print model online. Unsplash and OST will utilize blockchain to create the new model and the new currency for photography.

We will get into the exact details of how OST and Unsplash will work together in subsequent posts. Today I just want to say thank you to Mikael, Stephanie, Luke, and the entire Unsplash team for allowing OST and myself to get involved in your amazing vision. 9 months ago a prominent crypto investor asked me to name one company that I would most want to partner with to showcase our vision for OST as the enabler of mainstream adoption of blockchain technology. Without hesitation I said, “Unsplash” — the opportunity to utilize blockchain technology to further the Unsplash mission and democratize photography is clear, attainable, of massive scale, and immediately actionable.