Eastman Kodak announced to the public it plans to mint its own cryptocurrency, the KodakCoin. Shares in the company soared 120% after the announcement.

Kodak is a US firm who is teaming up with Wenn Media Group based in London to present the initial coin offering or ICO.

This blockchain-based initiative was developed to help photographers regulate their image rights.

Rows of Bitcoin mining machines will be installed at the Kodak headquarters in Rochester, New York.

A second scheme called Kodak KashMiner, was presented at the CES tech show in Las Vegas.

To rent mining capacity, customers will need to pay up front.

A succession of companies, including Kodak, have seen stock value increase after letting the public know their plans for blockchain-related interests.

“This is a phenomenon we saw back during the dot com days in the later 1990s where traditional companies would mention some kind of internet strategy and their stock price would jump up,” revealed University of Cambridge’s Garrick Hileman.

Hileman went on to say, “When you see stock prices moving like this it does appear to be troubling – it’s hard to say if there’s a bubble but it certainly is indicative of a frothy investment market.”

Coin creation

Because Kodak was hesitant to leave its film heritage in the past and move with the digital revolution, their market share was lost.

Image caption

Kodak deals in digital photography but the company, at first, was suspicious of the digital format. Because of its collapse in 2012, Kodak has now certified its brand to different manufacturers. Kodak’s logo now shows on printers, tablet computers, batteries, drones, and digital cameras.

Kodak’s cryptocurrency, KashMiner is run by Spotlite who previously joined with Kodak to use the brand to market LED lights.