The idea of using the Bitcoin blockchain to represent and track the ownership of off-chain assets is almost as old as Bitcoin itself. One of the startups that is pursuing this vision is Berlin-based Ascribe, which allows creators to register (‘ascribe’), transfer and archive digital art.
Ascribe CTO joined us for a fascinating discussion of their ambitious goals to enable a so-far elusive secondary market for digital art, help creators monetize their work and ultimately retrofit an entire ownership layer to the internet.
Topics covered in this episode:

Why ownership in the internet is broken
How Ascribe wants to realize the vision of Project Xanadu of an internet with bi-directional links and baked-in copyrights
How the SPOOL (Secure Public Online Ownership Ledger) protocol works
The components of the Ascribe tech stack
How Ascribe will crawl and similarity-match the entire internet to retrofit an internet of ownership
Why Ascribe focuses first on the digital art market

Episode links:

Ascribe
SPOOL Protocol
Cointemporary
Project Xanadu Wikipedia
Rewiring the Internet for Ownership with Big Data and Blockchains
Slides

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/078