Artworks in the blockchain (I). Copyright.

Discover how to register your artworks step by step, in a simple and very cheap way, to protect your copyright.

Photo by Bench Accounting on Unsplash

Blockchain can be used by artists to solve some practical problems in the registration and commercialization of artworks. In this post we will explain the model we are using for the original paintings of the cards in our collection.

First of all, it is important to register the authorship of the artwork. Although in the world prior to the blockchain the registry of artworks was tedious and expensive, nowadays it is enough to leave a record in the blockchain of the authorship to obtain an irrevocable and indisputable proof, and this without practically spending time or money.

With Ardor the registration of an artwork can be done in the following way. First of all, you have to create your own account, which would be convenient Set Account Info with the identity of the artist.

Set Account Info

After that we can proceed to sign the artwork, accessing the Settings / API Console menu, where we will look for the generateFileToken method.

There we look for the file with the artwork (it can be a photograph, if it is a physical work), and we generate the Token with the password of our account. This operation is free.

This way we obtain a digital signature of our work, which proves that at this time we had the work in our possession. As it is to be supposed that nobody will be able to demonstrate to have had it before, it is a sufficient proof that we are its authors.

The signature is convenient to register it in the blockchain, so that it is accessible all over the world. To do this, we proceed to upload the signature (the Token) to the Data Cloud of Ardor, labeling it as “copyright”. In the description we state the characteristics of the work and the terms of the copyright, and in text we upload the Token (saved in a text program).

To legally justify the test we must keep the original file whose signature we have obtained in this process. That way, it will be enough for us to show the original file and anyone can verify that we have registered it and when. This operation is free else.

In summary, blockchain allows us the simple and very cheap registration of our artworks. The whole process costs 1 Ardor (Set Account Info) + 0.1 Ardor (each record of a work of art). That is, approximately 0.01 $ for each registered work.

It would be even better if there was a specific GUI for the artists, since it is true that the general wallet of Ardor (the NRS) can be complex due to its immense variety of features.

In the next post we will explain how to tokenize a work of art and put it on sale in the blockchain, and in the third one we will explain how to auction them.