SPOOL

  Title: SPOOL Protocol (SPOOL/1.0)
  Author: Dimitri de Jonghe ([email protected]) and Trent McConaghy ([email protected])
  First public release: 2015-03-14
  Current public release: 2015-05-06

Introduction

SPOOL is:

• a protocol for documenting transactions relating to ownership of digital property, i.e. copyright rights
• an overlay of the bitcoin blockchain
• SPOOL = Secure Public Online Ownership Ledger

SPOOL is not:

• The law. SPOOL must be used with a contract concerning transfer of copyright rights that participants have agreed to. E.g. the ascribe Terms of Service (TOS).

SPOOL transactions include

• Register ownership. Supports >1 unique editions, e.g. edition 1/10, 2/10, …, 10/10.
• Transfer ownership
• Consign, for someone else to sell on your behalf
• And more

SPOOL + TOS = copyright on the blockchain.

Useful for digital art, photography, and other media.

Visual Description

Here is a full slide-based description. It also shows this protocol's place in an overall software stack.

The key points are:

Protocol Description

Summary: Via OP_RETURN we attach verbs to the blockchain tx, such as Register, Consign, Transfer, Loan, ....

Declarations

• FEE: mining fee based on transaction size (minimum 10000 satoshi)
• DUST: minimum size of an output to be accepted by the network (currently 600 satoshi)
• FEDERATION: A trusted wallet that acts as a federated agency, e.g. 1AScRhqdXMrJyxNmjEapMZi1PLFsqmLquG
• FUEL: A wallet that is used to provide enough bitcoin for subsequent interations
• META: Header for SPOOL protocol, e.g. <protocol><version> = ASCRIBESP00L01

Federated SPOOL actions

A federated action (e.g. "register") associates a user with digital content. Hereto, a trusted federation wallet sends a transaction to both an address owned by the user and an address that represents a base58 hash of the digital content. Note that the wallet with the digital content address is not required to be owned by the user.

Associate

General association action (e.g. "change password") to attach content to a wallet

• Mapping: 1-to-1
• PySPOOL: pyspool.Association(FEDERATION, address, hash, reason=<string>)
• Bitcoin:

TX = [(FEDERATION : FEE+2*DUST] 
     -> 
     [(hash : DUST), 
      (address : DUST), 
      (OP_RETURN=<META>ASSOCIATE<reason> : 0), 
      (FEE)]
> balance of hash = DUST
> balance of address = DUST

Register Editions

Associate N editions of the same content to a wallet with N addresses

• Mapping: 1-to-many
• PySPOOL: pyspool.Registration(FEDERATION, editions=[edition1_address, ..., editionN_address], hash)
• Bitcoin:

TX = [(FEDERATION : FEE+(1+<num_editions>)*DUST] 
     -> 
     [(hash : DUST), 
      (edition1_address : DUST), 
      ..., 
      (editionN_address : DUST), 
      (OP_RETURN=<META>REGISTER<num_editions> : 0), 
      (FEE)]
> num_editions = len(editions)
> balance of piece_hash = DUST
> balance of editionX_address = DUST

Consigned Registration

Register a single edition as a consignee. This allows marketplaces to register content on behalf of their users.

• Mapping: 1-to-1
• PySPOOL: pyspool.ConsignedRegistration(FEDERATION, MARKET_content_address, hash)
• Bitcoin:

TX = [(FEDERATION : FEE+2*DUST] 
     -> 
     [(hash : DUST), 
      (MARKET_content_address : DUST), 
      (OP_RETURN=<META>CONSIGNEDREGISTER<marketplaceID><marketuserID> : 0), 
      (FEE)]
> balance of piece_hash = DUST
> balance of MARKET_content_address = DUST

Migrate Content

Associate two wallets, where the address does not represent hashed content. Useful for password reset and other user/content updates.

• Mapping: 1-to-1
• PySPOOL: pyspool.Migration(FEDERATION, from_address, to_address, reason=<string>)
• Bitcoin:

TX = [(FEDERATION : FEE+2*DUST] 
     -> 
     [(from_address : DUST), 
      (to_address : DUST), 
      (OP_RETURN=<META>MIGRATE<reason> : 0), 
      (FEE)]
> balance of from_address = DUST + previous_balance
> balance of to_address = DUST

Fuel wallet

Fuel a wallet with enough bitcoin to

• Mapping: 1-to-1
• PySPOOL: pyspool.Fuel(FUEL, address)
• Bitcoin:

TX = [(FUEL : 2*FEE] 
     -> 
     [(address : FEE), 
      (OP_RETURN=<META>FUEL : 0), 
      (FEE)]
> balance of address = FEE + previous_balance

User-to-user interactions

An interaction transfers rights, ownership or smart contracts between users.

Transfer ownership

Transfer the ownership of registered content

• Mapping: 1-to-1
• SPOOL: pyspool.Transfer(from_address, to_address)
• Dependencies: Fuel, Register, optional: Migrate, Consign
• Bitcoin:

TX = [(from_address : DUST+FEE)] 
     -> 
     [(to_address : DUST), 
      (OP_RETURN=<META>TRANSFER : 0), 
      (FEE)]
> balance of from_address = 0
> balance of to_address = DUST

Consign

Assign the rights to transfer content to another user

• Mapping: 1-to-1
• SPOOL: pyspool.Consign(from_address, to_address)
• Dependencies: Fuel, Register, optional: Migrate, Transfer
• Bitcoin:

TX = [(from_address : DUST+FEE)] 
     -> 
     [(to_address : DUST), 
      (OP_RETURN=<META>CONSIGN : 0), 
      (FEE)]
> balance of from_address = 0
> balance of to_address = DUST

Unconsign

Return the rights to transfer the content back to the owner

• Mapping: 1-to-1
• SPOOL: pyspool.Unconsign(from_address, to_address)
• Dependencies: Fuel, Consign, optional: Migrate
• Bitcoin:

TX = [(from_address : DUST+FEE)] 
     -> 
     [(to_address : DUST), 
      (OP_RETURN=<META>UNCONSIGN : 0), 
      (FEE)]
> balance of from_address = 0
> balance of to_address = DUST

Loan

Assign the right to display or use the content for a period of time

• Mapping: 1-to-1
• SPOOL: pyspool.Loan(from_address, to_address, start_date, end_date)
• Dependencies: Fuel, Register, optional: Migrate
• Bitcoin:

TX = [(from_address : DUST+FEE)] 
     -> 
     [(to_address : DUST), 
      (OP_RETURN=<META>LOAN<start_date><end_date> : 0), 
      (FEE)]
> balance of from_address = 0
> balance of to_address = DUST

Share, unshare

Don't put on blockchain.

Background

SPOOL was developed by ascribe GmbH as part of the overall ascribe technology stack. http://www.ascribe.io

Copyright

SPOOL is © 2015 ascribe GmbH.

SPOOL is available for use under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA 3.0 license.