Kodak is infamous for its inability to get with the times. Once the dominant brand in photography – so much so that ‘Kodak moment’ is still part of our vernacular today – the firm was left behind in the 90s as digital photography took hold. In 2013 it emerged from a one-and-a-half year long bankruptcy battle, having sold off much of its business and patents to other companies.
But the Kodak name lives on and it is determined not to miss the digital hype bus again. Yesterday, the company announced its plans to become a blockchain business and launch its own cryptocurrency, the KODAKCoin. The news sent its share price spiking 119 per cent to $6.80 (£5.03), its highest since October 2017. (It's been on a steady trend downwards since a recent peak of $36.88 (£27.25) in January 2014).
The first part of Kodak’s pivot is to use blockchain technology to help photographers keep track of where their images are used, and to make sure they get paid when that happens. “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 in a press release.
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Kodak is also launching its own cryptocurrency, KODAKCoin, which is intended as a way of paying photographers immediately when their images are licensed for use. The initial coin offering will open on January 31, 2018 and is available to investors in the US, UK, Canada and other ‘select countries’.
But, wait. There's more. The final piece of Kodak’s blockchain plan is the most peculiar. At CES the company revealed it plans to install rows of Kodak-branded bitcoin mining devices at its headquarters in Rochester, New York. Investors will have the chance to rent a machine for two years, at a cost of $3,400 (£2,500) and will be allowed to keep half of the bitcoin mined, with the other half going back to Kodak. Each machine should generate around $375 (£277) worth of bitcoin every month at current prices, although the cryptocurrency's price is notoriously unstable, with many analysts speculating that it is heading for a crash.
Kodak isn’t the first company to try and cash in on the blockchain hype despite seemingly having limited expertise in that area. Everyone from burger chains to tea companies have tried to get their own share of the blockchain magic. Here are a few of the oddest.
In December, the Long Island Iced Tea Corporation changed its name to Long Blockchain Corporation. The company, which sells bottled iced tea and lemonade, announced it was shifting focus to concentrate on exploring and investing in opportunities in the blockchain space. Despite its unlikely credentials as a blockchain company, its shares spiked by 289 per cent. Since then the company has scaled-back its plans to raise $8.4 million (£6.2 million) through a stock offering and use that money to buy bitcoin mining machines. “The company can make no assurances that it will be able to finance the purchase of the mining equipment,” it said in a statement to investors on January 9, 2018.
Chanticleer owns and operates a number of burger franchises in the US, including branches of Hooters and BGR. On January 2, 2018, it announced that customers would soon be able to order their burgers with a side of cryptocurrency. The idea is that loyal customers would be rewarded for eating at the company’s restaurants by earning Merit tokens – a cryptocurrency that they could then use to buy more burgers or trade. The company’s shares went up by 42 per cent after it announced its plans.
Want to supercharge the share price of your furniture company? Try putting it on the blockchain. In December last year the homeware designer and distributor launched a wholly-owned subsidiary called “I Design Blockchain Technology Inc”, to “enhance product sales through a Blockchain technology-empowered digital platform.” Shares in the company went up 47 per cent after the announcement.
Not every tea company can pull off a pivot to the blockchain. In November, the Hong Kong-based produced of traditional Chinese tea changed its name to Blockchain Group Company. Unfortunately the shift only prompted a minor boost in the company’s share price, which has declined by 78 per cent over the last year.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
