I am an avid Youtube content watcher and I follow a lot of people on the website, and there was a recurring theme that these Youtubers complained about and it was about copyright strikes and how they are not able to produce the best content they have due to how complex it is to get a licensing agreement from the record company of mainstream music. I was astonished one day when I realized that there was not some new technology that solved this problem, this is when Copylight was born. I believe Copylight is the second generation of music commercialization, from selling music for people to listen, to now selling them to use.
Copylight implements blockchain technology to create and deploy smart contracts directly to the blockchain on a trigger that stores the addresses of the owner of the music rights and the content creator with the amount paid and ID of the song on the blockchain as a legal proof to make both sides satisfied while also transferring cryptocurrency automatically to . This blockchain technology is the backend to a UI friendly website running on React that allows a user to sign in, browse songs and decide which one to purchase.
First up, We needed to divide the work. The best choice is always to divide backend and frontend separately. Starting from backend, setting up the Postgres database and the Node js server was the priority while a design for the frontend was already undergoing. When the server was completed, it was time for the main technology, the smart contracts. The contracts were written with Solidity and ran on the Ethereum Ganache Development Server and were integrated with the Node JS server using Web3 API, they were triggered to deploy when the purchase is set and complete. In the end, we need to connect the React website to the backend and create all the routes for the website to be functional. Postgres SQL was used to save usernames, their respective wallets and their favorite currency.
The main challenge was with blockchain since although we had prior knowledge coding in blockchain, it was pretty hard to create triggerable smart contracts that would transfer ether directly and smoothly, and this challenge took us till the last quarter of the hackathon to figure out after perseverance and no sleep for 24 hours. Another main challenge was communication since we were 4 random strangers who teamed up and worked remotely the whole time but we were able to conquer this challenge by setting goals and hourly meetings in the end to be able to communicate to each other how much we have completed over time.
We are proud of the idea that we created and how it really solves a problem not addressed in modern society, not only making it easier for both parties of the agreement to profit and make money but also push people to pursue their dreams (whether content creation or music production) with a more monetizable possibility to grow and improve. We are also proud of the productivity we were able to create in the last 5 hours when we were a bit late due to complications, but we were able to complete on time due to our hard work and proper collaboration between different sides. Our full stack backgrounds helped the backend and frontend collaborate on different files to complete the work faster.
We learned that starting a project remotely and completing it in a weekend is pretty hard but not impossible. It needs discipline, commitment and good organization. Also, we learned that the blockchain is an amazing technology that can solve problems that everyone in the past thought was impossible. Its applications are endless and are growing day by day, automating complex tasks and contracts.
If the project works out and grabs the attention of the judges, we discussed that we had no problem continue building the AI so it becomes a fully functioning website with Jina search capabilities while also creating its own cryptocurrency to be used in the website and improve on the smart contracts. Due to its market demand and low competition, I truly believe that Copylight has the possibility of transforming from a weekend idea, to a full on Startup.