SPOOL

  Title: SPOOL Protocol (SPOOL/1.0)
  Author: Dimitri de Jonghe (dimi@ascribe.io) and Trent McConaghy (trent@ascribe.io)
  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

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

ascribe / spool