Photography company Kodak has teamed up with Wenn Digital, an image platform, to create a blockchain-powered image rights platform and its own cryptocurrency to go along with it.

KodakOne will create an encrypted digital ledger of rights ownership for photographers to license new and previous work. This platform is backed up by KodakCoin, which will enable photographers to receive payment for licensing their work immediately upon sale within a secure blockchain environment.

KodakOne will provide continual web crawling to monitor and protect the intellectual property of images registered to the platform. When unlicensed usage is detected, the platform manages the post-licensing process to reward photographers.

“For many in the tech industry, ‘blockchain’ and ‘cryptocurrency’ are hot buzzwords, but for photographers who’ve long struggled to assert control over their work and how it’s used, these buzzwords are the keys to solving what felt like an unsolvable problem,” said Kodak CEO Jeff Clarke. “Kodak has always sought to democratise photography and make licensing fair to artists. These technologies give the photography community an innovative and easy way to do just that.”

Kodak’s initial coin offering (ICO) will open on 31 January. It is open to accredited investors from the US, UK, Canada, and other select countries.