Kodak announces ICO, stock jumps 44%

Kodak is today announcing a partnership with Wenn Digital to create a "photo-centric cryptocurrency" that will "empower photographers and agencies to take greater control in image rights management." Because why not. It's 2018.

The company's stock jumped 44 percent on the news and is currently trading at $4.30, up 37.60 on the day.

Here's the buzzword-filled description of the product.

Utilizing blockchain technology, the KODAKOneplatform will create an encrypted, digital ledger of rights ownership for photographers to register both new and archive work that they can then license within the platform. With KODAKCoin, participating photographers are invited to take part in a new economy for photography, receive payment for licensing their work immediately upon sale, and for both professional and amateur photographers, sell their work confidently on a secure blockchain platform. KODAKOneplatform provides continual web crawling in order to monitor and protect the IP of the images registered in the KODAKOnesystem. Where unlicensed usage of images is detected, the KODAKOneplatform can efficiently manage the post-licensing process in order to reward photographers.

The ICO will take place on January 31, 2018 and is open to accredited investors from the U.S., Canada and other select countries. The coin will be called KodakCoin.

• This article originally appeared on TechCrunch.