Photography company Kodak gets in on the Bitcoin trend by releasing its own cryptocurrency and Bitcoin mining service.
Kodak announced at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas that it is coming up with its own cryptocurrency, KodakCoin, as a part of a blockchain-based initiative that will help photographers have better control over their image rights. Through KodakCoin, photographers could get immediate payment for their images, in the form of cryptocurrency.
The New York-based firm is partnering with London's Wenn Media Group for the initial coin offering (ICO).
According to Wenn Digital chief executive Jan Denecke, "It is critical photographers know their work and their income is handled securely and with trust, which is exactly what we did with KodakCoin."
He added that KodakCoin is subject to the "highest standards of compliance," created so that photographers could be paid fairly, "giving them an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a new economy tailored for them, with secure asset rights management built right in."
Kodak also announced its plan to install rows of Bitcoin mining rigs along its headquarters in Rochester, New York.
The 130-year-old photography firm is the latest company to get in on the cryptocurrency bandwagon, after Bitcoin experienced massive spike in value in the past months.
Following the unveiling of the KodakCoin, shares for Eastman Kodak rose by almost 120 percent. This did not come as a surprise, as other companies that announced their own cryptocurrencies experienced a spike in shares.
"This is a phenomenon we saw back during the dot com days in the late 1990s where traditional companies would mention some kind of internet strategy and their stock price would jump up," University of Cambridge's Garrick Hileman told BBC.
Founded in 1888, Kodak filed for bankcruptcy in 2012, after failing to stand out in the digital technology.
