Quote from Ndubuisi Ekekwe on January 10, 2018, 8:23 PM

GoPro, the action camera maker, has a product but not a platform. In the age of China, that is a lost business model. No company can succeed in any consumer hardware business without a platform unless that company has an address somewhere in China. The action camera pioneer plans to sell itself, Fortune reports.

GoPro is exploring a sale after a tumultuous couple of years that included multiple rounds of layoffs, shrinking sales, and a plummeting stock price. The action camera company has hired J.P. Morgan Chase to help it find a suitor, according to a CNBC report on Monday that cites unnamed sources. It’s unclear if there are any interested buyers and a deal may not occur, the report said.

But there are other options for GoPro if it cannot find a buyer. A key one is to become a Spotify for photographers where blockchain can be used to manage picture ownership rights which photographers can embed in their images. Through that, photographers could earn royalties for the use of their photos. They would need to create a crawl engine that would work with Google to identify photos used without rights, and ask Google to immediately do-crawl them.

A global general ledger to manage image right is going to be part of Internet 3.0. If GoPro creates a new cryptocurrency, GoProCoin, to pay those photographers, the company would see a new life. Just as Spotify harmonized musicians, photographers would need their moments. GoPro should focus on that and leave hardware for China.

It is not only music that could be used illegally – photos should have rights with equal level of respect. Making the automation of those rights at scale would be very critical. Yes, before they use those photos, the using entity will pay some small licensing fees to embed them. GoPro can technically create that future. Of course, you can do so also.