Digital Asset Ownership via Segmented Secure Storage
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing approaches to digital asset ownership, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), often fail to provide true ownership since the digital assets can be publicly available, leading to minimal perceived value and limited control over use.
Innovation Solution
A system that securely stores a unique digital asset in a controlled environment, allowing only lower-quality or differently formatted versions to be shared outside, ensuring that no identical copies are publicly available, thereby maintaining true ownership.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a digital asset is made publicly available, then accessibility and visibility are improved, but true ownership and exclusivity deteriorate because identical copies can be distributed widely
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the digital asset into two distinct components: a unique master copy stored securely in a controlled environment, and multiple lower-quality or differently formatted versions that can be publicly distributed. This segmentation allows the asset to be both accessible and exclusive simultaneously, as the public receives only derivative versions while the owner retains the unique original.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by providing different versions of the digital asset with different qualities to different users. The owner receives the full-quality unique copy stored in a controlled environment, while the public receives lower-quality or differently formatted versions. This differential quality distribution maintains true ownership while enabling public accessibility.
2Quantity of substance
If identical copies of a digital asset are distributed to multiple people, then accessibility is improved, but the value and exclusivity of ownership deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent ensures that while multiple copies can be distributed to the public, each copy has locally different quality characteristics compared to the unique master copy. The public receives lower-resolution, differently formatted, or otherwise degraded versions, while the owner retains the high-quality original. This quality differentiation preserves the perceived value of ownership despite multiple copies existing.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates an asymmetric relationship between the unique digital asset and its copies. The master copy possesses superior quality and is stored in a controlled environment with restricted access, while public copies are deliberately inferior in quality or format. This asymmetry ensures that even though multiple copies exist, the owner's version remains uniquely valuable.
3Reliability
If a digital asset is stored in a controlled environment with restricted access, then exclusivity and true ownership are improved, but accessibility and public availability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments access to the digital asset into two tiers: the unique master copy remains in a controlled environment with restricted access for the owner, while derivative versions are made publicly available. This segmentation resolves the contradiction by allowing both exclusivity (through controlled access to the original) and public availability (through distributed copies).
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes copying to resolve the accessibility-exclusivity contradiction. While the unique digital asset remains securely stored and inaccessible to the public, accurate or high-fidelity copies are created and distributed to the public in lower-quality or differently formatted versions. This copying approach enables public availability without compromising the exclusivity and security of the original asset.
Data Source
AI summary
Approaches presented herein provide for the management of owned digital assets. An entity may obtain ownership of (or other rights to) a unique digital asset, and information regarding this ownership can be stored to a trusted registry, such as a blockchain. The only true copy of this digital asset is stored to a secure environment, with no identical copy of this digital being available outside this secure environment. A party may be able to obtain a copy, version, or view of this digital asset that will differ in at least some way from the true asset. For a 3D model asset, this may include providing only a 2D image of that 3D model that was rendered in a secure environment. In this way, a true reconstruction of the 3D model will be unable to be generated outside of the secure environment. If the asset was obtained through procedural generation, information about the generation (and ownership of one or more aspects of that generation) may be stored to the registry as well.