A wild idea by Pinterest employee #1

“Blockchain technology has the ability to completely change what it means to own and ultimately value a digital creation” - Dannie Chu, co-founder and CEO of MakersPlace MakersPlace launched on Product Hunt yesterday with a unique mission: a marketplace to purchase digital art on the blockchain. The company was founded by early Pinterest employees, and just raised $2M in seed funding. How it works: When artists upload their work to MakersPlace, they verify their identity (through an integration with Civic) by taking a photo of their driver's license. An Ethereum-based token is then generated with the artists's name, the name of the artwork, its edition number and the date. This allows artists to simply establish proof of ownership for each work. “It’s this creator-first approach that has allowed us to introduce and onboard hundreds of digital creators onto the blockchain over the last months. Many who have never heard of or care to understand the details of blockchain technology, but simply wish for a better solution to protect and make money from their digital creations.” On the buyer side, it's also remarkably easy. While you typically need a digital wallet to make purchases on the blockchain, MakersPlace recognizes that a lot of people down already own a digital wallet or Ether, creating a barrier for this type of sale. So the company partnered with Stripe to support credit card purchases, and then MakersPlace will issue you a digital wallet. While digital art has traditionally been deemed 'less valuable' than physical art, MakersPlace hopes to make digital art more authentic with this approach. Each and every work has been digitally signed and issued by the creator, making every single purchase unique. To make money, MakersPlace takes a 15 percent cut of each sale. The art world has been traditionally rooted in insular, relationship-driven practices, and when it comes to adapting new technologies, has been particularly slow to the uptake. But as digitally-native platforms are becoming more and more common for all types of commerce, that's gradually starting to change. Platforms like Artsy ($100M raised) have managed to make inroads in the space — the site makes money by hosting live online auctions and over 2,000 galleries pay monthly subscriptions to advertise work on the site. Earlier this year, online auction house Paddle8 was acquired by The Native to create an auction that accepts bitcoin. Sotheby's — an old school art auction house — recently bought AI startup Thread Genius to build out its image recognition tech. For displaying digital art in your home, there's also Meural, which was acquired by Netgear. For buying and selling goods on the blockchain, there's Rare Bits and SuperRare. 👀 [View Online]( [Product Hunt]( [9ec17aad 6762 40bf a7f7 08c89a8e3c93?auto=format]( “Blockchain technology has the ability to completely change what it means to own and ultimately value a digital creation” - Dannie Chu, co-founder and CEO of MakersPlace [MakersPlace]( launched on Product Hunt yesterday with a unique mission: a marketplace to purchase digital art on the blockchain. The company was founded by early Pinterest employees, and just raised $2M in seed funding. How it works: When artists upload their work to MakersPlace, they verify their identity (through an integration with Civic) by taking a photo of their driver's license. An Ethereum-based token is then generated with the artists's name, the name of the artwork, its edition number and the date. This allows artists to simply establish proof of ownership for each work. “It’s this creator-first approach that has allowed us to introduce and onboard hundreds of digital creators onto the blockchain over the last months. Many who have never heard of or care to understand the details of blockchain technology, but simply wish for a better solution to protect and make money from their digital creations.” On the buyer side, it's also remarkably easy. While you typically need a digital wallet to make purchases on the blockchain, MakersPlace recognizes that a lot of people down already own a digital wallet or Ether, creating a barrier for this type of sale. So the company partnered with Stripe to support credit card purchases, and then MakersPlace will issue you a digital wallet. While digital art has traditionally been deemed 'less valuable' than physical art, MakersPlace hopes to make digital art more authentic with this approach. Each and every work has been digitally signed and issued by the creator, making every single purchase unique. To make money, MakersPlace takes a 15 percent cut of each sale. The art world has been traditionally rooted in insular, relationship-driven practices, and when it comes to adapting new technologies, has been particularly slow to the uptake. But as digitally-native platforms are becoming more and more common for all types of commerce, that's gradually starting to change. Platforms like [Artsy]( ($100M raised) have managed to make inroads in the space — the site makes money by hosting live online auctions and over 2,000 galleries pay monthly subscriptions to advertise work on the site. Earlier this year, online auction house Paddle8 was acquired by The Native to create an auction that accepts bitcoin. Sotheby's — an old school art auction house — recently bought AI startup [Thread Genius]( to build out its image recognition tech. For displaying digital art in your home, there's also [Meural](, which was acquired by Netgear. For buying and selling goods on the blockchain, there's [Rare Bits]( and [SuperRare](. 👀 [Get digital art]( Remember when [Remove.bg]( launched and blew our minds? Well yesterday, the makers revealed [Remove.bg for Photoshop]( to make things easier for Photoshop users. 🙌 [Newsletter Sponsor ?]( [7364871c 71b2 4ea4 904e b842fa4a87cc?auto=format&bf=max&bh=160&bm=normal&bw=160&fit=crop&h=80&w=80]( [Hotjar]( [There's a fast and visual way to better understand your users. Hotjar is everything your team needs to see how people are really using your site and get instant visual feedback.]( [▲ 6631+ Upvotes]( Yesterday’s Top Hunts [D98e2bb1 5c1c 4cdb 91ed d5cd73b0d00f?auto=format&fit=crop&h=160&w=160]( [remove.bg for Photoshop]( [Remove the background of any image 100% automatically]( [▲ 801+ Upvotes]( [39b06017 c738 426f 83cc 9e25154c299f?auto=format&fit=crop&h=160&w=160]( [Notifia]( [Increase conversions, generate leads & collect feedback]( [▲ 829+ Upvotes]( [60fbfbd0 fd25 486f 92f6 d19beead3e28?auto=format&fit=crop&h=160&w=160]( [10Web]( [All-in-one WordPress website builder]( [▲ 726+ Upvotes]( [2b830b81 aedf 4776 b7af 0631fc229773?auto=format&fit=crop&h=160&w=160]( [Taskade 2.0]( [Create tasks, notes, and video chat, all on one page ⚡️✏️✅]( [▲ 945+ Upvotes]( [212d7b7a 567b 47ff 8a65 2d7d6515fd0c?auto=format&fit=crop&h=160&w=160]( [Marketing Teams of The Future]( [A book for marketers wanting to future-proof content teams]( [▲ 381+ Upvotes]( Who's Hiring [De21e7ea a3c3 4880 a4e0 45f9cf38fc9c?auto=format&bf=max&bh=100&bm=normal&bw=100&fit=crop&h=48&w=48]( [InVision]( [The digital product design platform]( [2ce6321a ff3b 412b a1ad c50e022f7282?auto=format&bf=max&bh=100&bm=normal&bw=100&fit=crop&h=48&w=48]( [Notion]( [The all-in-one workspace for notes, tasks, wikis, & databases]( [85d92ff7 3e45 407c 9bf2 8c7799d691c4?auto=format&bf=max&bh=100&bm=normal&bw=100&fit=crop&h=48&w=48]( [GraphJS]( [Tools to make your website/app social; blog, forum, profiles in just a tag]( [23249308 5c80 4e63 a613 e66ee70e9fa4?auto=format&bf=max&bh=100&bm=normal&bw=100&fit=crop&h=48&w=48]( [Flexport]( [YC Alumni. LinkedIn Top Startup. Solve real-world complex problems]( [29e88340 535a 415f b68e 7453ca78572c?auto=format&bf=max&bh=100&bm=normal&bw=100&fit=crop&h=48&w=48]( [AngelList]( [The network for startup success]( Are you hiring? [Add your job posting]( [Eceb0e67 674a 4abb 9771 057915fc3849?auto=format&auto=compress&codec=mozjpeg&cs=strip&w=80&h=80&fit=crop&dpr=2]( [Ship - A toolkit for makers to ship awesome products]( [Build an audience for your product. The best product launches are supported by engaged communities, so we've built a suite of tools to help every maker engage with and learn from their most passionate fans]( [build an audience]( We send this email daily. Feel free to [switch to weekly]( or [turn off]( these emails any time.