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Digital rights management redefined
Discover how this innovative startup uses smart contracts to help data owners tighten control, increase transparency and monetize their digital rights.
Innovation
A new era in digital rights management using smart contracts
AWS development
Platform built by a GFT team of 15 in 4 months
Digital rights service
Great interest among financial institutions
Challenge
A unique challenge
Founded in 2019, One Creation is a startup with a vision to transform digital rights across all industries using smart contracts. Its solution is unique in that it manages rights separately from the underlying data, which can be stored anywhere and in any format.
At a time when many companies are considering data monetization options, One Creation offers a “central nervous system” to monitor and control data access from an app in real time. Data can be distributed across several locations or even ecosystems. This is a timely solution to digital rights challenges such as GDPR, open banking and copyright in the entertainment industry.
One Creation is an unusual tech startup. With only a few employees, it lacked the technical capacity to build a platform and sought an expert partner. Attracted by the project’s market potential and with its client base grappling with digital rights, GFT accepted the challenge.
Engagement
From idea to action
In May 2020, GFT and One Creation began to collaborate, with the aim of completing a minimum viable product (MVP) in four months. A cloud-based solution was the only realistic way to meet the ambitious timeframe and was the ideal platform for a scalable production solution. As well as contributing skilled resources, GFT provided the right cloud environments, thanks to its internal partnership programs.
Technology – a people business
Beginning with a team of nine accredited AWS cloud engineers, GFT adopted an AWS technology stack using its own infrastructure-as-code set up. In this way, infrastructure could be provisioned as necessary, aligning costs with exact requirements, while maximizing agility and flexibility.
A model AWS development
In a matter of weeks, GFT expanded the development team to 15 individuals in several locations. With its proven global delivery, model GFT could draw on an international talent pool and delivery expertise to maximize productivity and ensure the best possible outcome. For example, the UX/PX was delivered in the UK, and smart contracts, cloud engineering and development services in Spain, while One Creation is based in the USA.
From the outset the team adopted agile methods, including DevOps and an AWS pipeline for continuous integration and deployment.
As well as shortening the development and release cycle, this enabled new functionality to be added and amended quickly. Terraform scripts ensured the infrastructure was continually configured to exact requirements.
Benefit
The decentralization of trust
A key feature of the development was to separate data from digital rights. In practice, the platform does not use data but is driven by metadata, which is encrypted from end to end.
To maintain security and trust, One Creation uses smart contracts and distributed ledger technology. This provides a “single version of the truth” that covers all actions and events. Data can only be viewed by people entitled to do so.
Production-ready on time and according to plan
In October 2020, GFT delivered the MVP as planned. One Creation is moving into production with a digital rights service available via an annual subscription. The unique service heralds a new era in digital rights management. Organizations can monetize their data at scale without speculative investment, safe in the knowledge their digital rights are maintained.
Several of the world’s top banks and insurance companies are showing great interest in One Creation as a strategic solution to the digital rights challenge. GFT clients are considering it as an alternative to costly permissioning systems at each exit of their data warehouses. One Creation can support any kind of data set and will work in any functional domain or industry.
The project shows how AWS methods and technologies empower collaboration. One Creation has a marketable solution, while GFT has lived up to its reputation of being able to work with companies of all sizes.
“With distributed ledger technologies, digital rights can be separated from the data itself, creating a new world of business opportunity. One Creation empowers companies in many industries to monetize their data through control.”