The lack of creative, legal, and financial control over AI-generated art has led to the use of over 5 billion images without the consent of their original creators. As a result, creators are seeking fair compensation for their work. Ringfence, the first generative AI platform, is aiming to solve this issue by ensuring creators are paid royalties every time their work is used to create AI-generated content (AIGC).
This month's review will cover how the platform works, its latest rNFT launch, and its partnership with MSV GG. The review will end with an analysis of what we like about Ringfence and where we see potential challenges for the project.
What is Ringfence? Deep dive into how it works and its recent rNFT release
Ringfence is a platform that ensures creators are paid fairly each time their original work is used to develop AIGC (Artificial Intelligence Generated Content). Creators, such as musicians, painters, writers, and filmmakers, can upload their photos, images, videos, documents, and music to the platform to protect their intellectual property from unauthorized use by third parties.
The creators can use the platform to verify their ownership and grant permission for AI to use their files to generate new AI-generated content, which can help them make money from their content. Moreover, Ringfence provides the creators with the ability to create AI-generated content on 50+ EVM-compatible chains using LayerZero's ONFT standard. This allows for the efficient transfer of non-fungible tokens across multiple blockchains without asset wrapping, middle chains, or liquidity pools.
How it works
Ringfence is designed to enhance content strategies for its users, enabling experienced and novice creators to grow their respective asset portfolios.
For example, creators can use Ringfence’s engine to create a variety of content mediums and use Ringfence to tokenize their art. The way they sign up is by:
- Connect ERC-20 wallet
- The creator can then choose to upload their existing content or jump right into generating AI-generated content.
- Ringfence’s proprietary technology screens all uploaded and AI-generated content to verify content authenticity and establish ownership.
- The creator established rules for their content, determining usage parameters and licensing permissions.
- If a creator authorizes Ringfence to use their work in training AI models, the creator is paid every time their content is used.
rNFTs
The Ringfence team recently published their rNFT Litepaper, which explains NFTs' main features and how they drive the ecosystem.
rNFTs allow users to combine various digital assets such as images, videos, audio, and text into a single NFT. To ensure authenticity, this content is accompanied by detailed metadata. Creators can dynamically manage their rNFTs by updating and expanding them over time.
There are various monetization options available, including neural network training and licensing for commercial use. These options provide creators with diverse revenue streams.
Key Features:
- Acquisition: Users can obtain rNFTs through an upcoming mint on Ringfence.
- Content Variety: rNFTs support a range of digital asset types, including images, videos, audio, and text.
- Metadata Documentation: Each content piece in an rNFT is accompanied by metadata for traceability and authenticity.
- Dynamic Management: Creators can update and expand the content of their rNFTs over time.
Monetization Avenues:
- Neural Network Training: Users can collaborate with Ringfence by providing digital assets for neural network training and earning rewards.
- Licensing: Creators can license components or the entire rNFT for commercial use, generating revenue with automated royalties.
- Branding and Commercial Use: rNFTs can be used for branding and commercial purposes, such as licensing portfolios for advertising.
Team and Fundraising
The Ringfence team is led by CEO Whit Gibbs, co-founder of Bitcoin mining’s largest hardware and hosting marketplace, Compass Mining, and Dr.Dimitry Mihaylov. Dimitry is the Chief Science Officer of the platform. He has a strong track record in architecting complex data systems and machine learning models – including those he has worked on for many major companies and non-governmental organizations such as WorldBank and the United Nations.
The team recently closed its $1.5M seed round, led by Rarestone Capital and Morningstar Ventures, with participation from Spark Digital Capital, Curiosity Capital, Noir Ventures, and other funds and angel investors.
MSV GG Partnership
Morningstar Ventures’ retail arm MSV GG has already onboarded Ringfence as one of its new partners. Soon, MSV GG will start testing the project’s upcoming beta app and provide feedback, along with supporting other strategic initiatives and content production. MSV GG and Ringfence are also planning a challenge to launch in late Q1/early Q2.
Our Analysis - Strengths and Weaknesses
There are significant opportunities in the field of AI-generated art and licensing due to the lack of creative, legal, ethical, and financial control. Ringfence aims to be an industry leader by addressing this pressing issue and finding solutions to support and represent creators. It is predicted that the market potential of generative AI will grow to $1.3 trillion by 2032, and the copyright licensing market is expected to reach $243.5 billion by 2027. The project offers a clear token utility, as users and creators within the platform can tokenize any piece of verified digital content.
However, the use of AI to scrape images has become a widespread practice, with more than five billion images already collected and more being added rapidly. Unfortunately, this has led to a significant challenge for creators who are struggling to protect their copyright. Due to the complex and evolving nature of copyright laws, it is difficult to determine what constitutes content misuse or plagiarism. This presents a difficult problem for the team responsible for finding a solution for this controversial issue. Additionally, since Ringfence is still in its early stages, it may be difficult to convince users to adopt the platform, making it a long-term challenge to solve the underlying issue of regulating creators' rights.
What’s Next for Ringfence
The team is currently preparing to launch their beta. If you want to participate, you can join the waitlist here: https://ringfence.ai/. After the beta, the team wants to use the feedback to complete their features and add more features. In the second half of this year, they also plan to launch an MVP and move away from third-party reliance by creating a proprietary Ringfence AI engine.
Learn more about Ringfence
🌐 Official website: https://ringfence.ai/
🐦 Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/RingfenceAI
🕹️ Discord channel: https://discord.com/invite/cefrTPp9N6
