Microsoft’s research department in collaboration with researchers from Alibaba and Carnegie Mellon University revealed the firm is studying a blockchain-based incentive system to boost anti-piracy campaigns.
The new system introduced by Microsoft, Argus shows its reliance on the transparency aspect of blockchain technology.
Argus was developed on the Ethereum blockchain with the aim of providing a trustless incentive mechanism and at the same time protecting the collected data from a population of pirated presenters.
Not only that, Argus also allows the re -tracing of pirated content to a source with a watermark algorithm. This way, no one except the informant can report a copy with a watermark without actually owning it.
Argus also has a protection reduction incentive to prevent whistleblowers from reporting the same content leaks repeatedly with the use of different names.
The developers have also optimized some cryptographic operations, making the cost of reporting piracy equal to the cost of sending around 14 ETH transfer transactions to be run on Ethereum’s public network.
Previously, Microsoft also offered Ethereum Blockchain as a Service (EBaaS) in Microsoft Azure before announcing the termination of the service on 10 September.
Additionally, in December 2020, Microsoft has chosen the Ethereum blockchain for gaming copyright and royalty management.
