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EB78 – Trent McConaghy: Ascribe And The Internet Of Ownership

808 views · Published 11 May 2015 · 1:06:55 · Indexed 3 October 2026

Channel: Epicenter Podcast · 2015 · Science & Technology

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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 Trent McConaghy 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 included:
- 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


Links mentioned in this episode: 

- Ascribe: http://bit.ly/1IqTzxY
- SPOOL Protocol: http://bit.ly/1AOPQCw
- Cointemporary: http://bit.ly/1Kxscjc
- Project Xanadu Wikipedia: http://bit.ly/1Rri9kQ
- Rewiring the Internet for Ownership with Big Data and Blockchains: http://bit.ly/1FrMes1
- Slides: http://bit.ly/1BHm9E1

Sponsors: 

- Shapeshift: Buy and sell alt coins instantly at http://ShapeShift.io

Show notes: http://epicenterbitcoin.com/podcast/078
SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/epicenterbitcoin/eb-078


Epicenter Bitcoin is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Sébastien Couture.
 
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