Photosof.com

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Welcome to Photosof.com

An image interface for the IPFS & NFT's

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Upload, Host, Share & Use Decentralized Images stored as NFT's

Photosof.com Docs

Introduction

Photosof.com is a decentralized image hosting, image sharing, monetization & marketplace platform that allows you to upload, store, host, share & monetize decentralized images.

Photosof.com provides all the tools to create and launch your own IPFS & NFT projects.

You will have an interface to upload, store and display images (and metadata) to and from the IPFS, a profile where all your files are available and the ability to create an NFT from any image.

Depending on login type you will create a username or in the case of web3 login the wallet address is your username. You are then able to create various galleries or photosets linked to that username. A gallery can contain one image if necessary. All images upload are also available directly from the Photosof.com gateway at photoof.com/imagecid

Signup / Login

Photosof.com offers three ways to login:

Username & Password which is stored in a "offchain" data. With this login technique no web3 features can be used and can only be used with IPFS only upload form.

Magic Link Email

Web3 Wallet

See Guide on how to sign up and in using Metamask.

Why you need a web3 wallet

Without a web3 wallet, your decentralized images will be tied to a offchain database. Even though your images are decentralized the account mechansim is no different that an "web2" website such as flickr you are also tied to web2 monetization techniques. A web3 wallet allows full decentralization and portability as well as other features.

Username & Password which is stored in a "offchain" data. With this login technique no web3 features can be used and can only be used with IPFS only upload form.

Concept of a digital wallet

With a web3 wallet you can store and retrieve:

Photos

NFT or Lens Profile

Advertising revenue (from sharing)

Licensing revenue (from downloads)

Photo sales revenue (from marketplace)

Commissions (from print-on-demand)

Everything is tied to your wallet: The images, (lens) profile, NFT Sales/ stock photo & Advertising revenue. And you can take that wallet and use it with any service that supports it.

Storage Network

Photosof.com currently only offers IPFS hosting via providers. But will expand in future to include more decentralized networks.

IPFS Provider

Photosof.com does not interface with the IPFS directly but uses providers freeing us up to focus on providing the best image related services.

Storage / Hosting

All images on Photosof.com are stored on the Interplanetary File System (IPFS).

Pinning

When storing assets with a distributed storing system like IPFS, it is necessary to use a pinning service. “Pinning” a file basically tells IPFS to not get rid of the file and keep it available.

Not only does Photosof.com automatically pin your images there’s a growing number of IPFS storage services that can be used to pin files leaving you with no lock-in.

Blockchain

The blockchain that NFT's are minted on. Photosof.com currently only supports Polygon.

Web3 Provider

The organization providing the tools to work with the blockchain.

Upload(ing) Forms

A form is required to upload images and the accompanying metadata to the decentralized storage network. Photosof.com offers three different forms to upload images to the IPFS: IPFS only, IPFS or NFT (IPFS upload with the option of manually creating an NFT via a button), IPFS & NFT (automatically - when uploaded - tokenize the image on the blockchain and save it to the users wallet).

IPFS Only Form /ipfs
This is the most basic form to upload images (and metadata) to the IPFS. If all you need is decentralized image hosting to use this. Note: Details are served via a database linked to your account. Images are served back under the form via CID's stored in a data linked to that user.

IPFS or NFT Form /backend
This is a two-step process. First you upload the image then you click the MintNFT button to turn it into a non-fungible token).
If needed we also have an "NFT's from Photosof.com in this wallet" add-on that goes below the files uploaded (that are below the form). Where NFT's from a logged in user is displayed as polaroids below the form. This can help if you have a lot of IPFS downloads but only a few NFT's. Remember NFT's sits alongside IPFS downloads on this form and are only differentiated by a yellow border.

IPFS & NFT Form /upload
IPFS Upload direct to NFT automatically. Upload and convert images to NFT's in one step. This is the only form that will give you a truly decentralized application. A new application can be created by simply creating a new front-end for the app.

Form design: Forms can be styled accordingly

Once you've successfully signup up you will receive a profile where you can upload, view, keep track of all images and convert to NFT's. See "The Backend" in Guide.

Link: www.photosof.com/backend (once logged in)

FAQ's

What is the difference between an IPFS hosted image (only) and a NFT?
IPFS only means an image (and its metadata) has been uploaded to the IPFS. An NFT means that the metadata has been permanently and immutably added to the blockchain. This is important as it deals with how the images can be accessed. IPFS hosted can only be accessed via a central database (of CID's) that has been added to the IPFS which is in turn linked to an local or offchain profile. NFT's are stored in a decentralized digital wallet like Metamask. Not only proving ownership but also allowing you to move that image service to service by simply connecting your wallet.

Photosof.com Metadata Standard

On top of the OpenSea standard we have added an option "Photographer" key so that image NFT's can be credited properly and where ever it goes it is properly attributed (provided the service supports it).

Photosof.com Standard Metadata

name*: (title)
description*: (about image)
file*: (image to upload)
photographer: (which can be used for ©copyright notice on services that support it)
external_url: (link to website or portfolio)

External url use case

External url can also be used to link to another image that compliments that particular one. Take for example this image:

with this metadata:

Links to this metadata:

"You are the proud owner of a one-of-a-kind NFT of Table Mountain taken from Bloubergstrand. It took me over 100 shots to get this perfect image of one of the "New 7 Wonders of Nature". I hope it brings you joy!"

Which in turn links to this image:

1 in a 100

What is saved with the images

When the IPFS Only or IPFS or NFT form is used the image CID is stored in a database. In order to group non NFT images under a profile we stored the decentralized cid in a database linked to that user. Here is what else we store in the database:

profileId (wallet address if logged in with web3 otherwise it's a username)
name
description
image (CID)
image_url (gateway with CID)
photographer
external_url
metadata (CID)
metadata_url (gateway with CID)
pinsize
isnft (true or false)

If true (NFT):

contract
token
contractAndToken

In future:

tags
category

Profile

Once you've successfully signup up you will receive a profile where you can upload, view, keep track of all images and convert to NFT's. A profile contains all the images uploaded by that user along with that user's details such as username, about and website link. Profiles can be offchain (centralized database edited via the Settings page) and onchain (NFT directly from blockchain). There is also an option to use a Lens Protocol profile.

Basic Profile

A basic profile is an offchain profile (centralized database) that is edited using the Settings page.

NFT Profile

An onchain profile which uses an NFT that you own as the profile. The IPFS image is your profile picture, name of the metadata is the username and description of the about or bio. The easiest way to currently set this is to make the first NFT minted the profile NFT and this NFT is thus not counted (excluded in the rest of the application, layouts, galleries etc.

Order of images in profile vs. gallery

By default the most recent image uploaded is first on the profile/gallery. In future we will make this variable and there will be a way to to build sets of images and your galleries/sets/carousel can be in any order, chronological or otherwise.

Offchain vs. Onchain

Offchain: Not on the blockchain. Usually means served from a centralized database in our context.

Onchain: Data is stored on the blockchain. Or served directly from the blockchain in our case. Note: Only metadata of NFT is stored on the blockchain. Images are stored on a decentralized host such as the interplanetary file system (IPFS).

Profile & Navigation in demo mode

Once logged in on the profile page you will see links to various layouts During the demo: How it is currently setup: Home links to profile, profile links to other layouts. In the demo mode once logged-in: The top navigation on pages and upload forms will look like this:

Backend Menu: Home | Add Images (IPFS or NFT) | Profile | Setting | Logout

Profile Menu: Once you click on the Profile you will be given links to all that user's images in various dynamic layouts:

Profile | Gallery | Photolog | Slider | NFT's (Polaroid's)

Static Layouts

Images on Photosof.com can be displayed in various layouts including grid, masonry and interface allowing the images to be opened in a lightbox.

Dynamic Image Sharing

Images on Photosof.com can be shared in many ways.

From a technical perspective it can be shared directly from the photoof.com gateway link, username: a collection served from the IPFS via CID's stored in a database and wallet-address: directly from the blockchain from the NFT metadata stored in a digital wallet such as Metamask.

From a design perspective

Anatomy of a link

photosof.com/service/wallet or username/gallery or set

Display / Sharing

Display your IPFS-hosted images images in a lightbox, as a gallery, photolog, slider and various more layouts.

Profile Lightbox

Your public profile with lightbox will be available at www.photosof.com/profile/*walletaddress

Here your IPFS-hosted images will be presented as a clickable lightbox which opens a lightbox when clicked.

Gallery

Available at www.photosof.com/gallery/*walletaddress

A gallery of your IPFS hosted images.

Create galleries from images stored on the IPFS. Create & Share Image Galleries of IPFS hosted images.

Photolog

Available at www.photosof.com/plog/*walletaddress

Your IPFS hosted images and metadata presented as a photolog

"How can I trust you if you write to me, but do not include the URL of your photoblog? How can I tell, first, what your face looks like? Isn’t that enormously important? Secondly, without a photoblog I cannot know if your perception of the world is stale or fresh. I cannot know if you look around you, and, if you do, what you’re looking at, and how." - Nick Currie

Slider

Available at www.photosof.com/slider/*walletaddress

Your IPFS-hosted images displayed in a slider.

Create beautiful fullscreen image sliders from images stored on the IPFS.

Polaroid NFT View

Display images in your wallet as a polaroid

Available at www.photosof.com/nft/*walletaddress

DIY / Custom (in roadmap)

Available at www.photosof.com/custom-layout/*walletaddress

Create a custom layout to display your IPFS-hosted images.

Image links

A Photosof.com image link will return one of three results:

valid: Valid account/wallet with images

empty: Empty account/wallet: A valid but empty account/wallet

Error message: NO IMAGES IN THIS WALLET FROM THIS CONTRACT. Error image:

wrong/invalid: Invalid account/wallet: A invalid link

Error message: INCORRECT WALLET ADDRESS. Error image:

error: If you created an NFT and metadata was not properly saved/returned and you create a gallery the following image will show up.

Error image:

Image Ecosystem Search

Images - depending on how it was uploaded - can be searched across the network by going to photosof.com/search-term.

Images on the ecosystem are categorized as follows:

Non NFT & NFT

Shared images

Images available for license (paid download)

Images available for sale

Images available for free download (advertising supported)

Boo

Monetization

Images on Photosof.com can be monetized via advertising, downloads, print-on-demand and selling of images.

Image Selling / Image Marketplace

Downloads (Stock photos)

Print-on-demand

Advertising (Sharing)

Image Marketplace

An NFT marketplace for purchasing copyright buyouts of images with full intellectual property and commercial rights.

Marketplace

Available at www.photosof.com/marketplace

Stock Photo Downloads

Stock photos can be offered as a free (ad-supported) download such as Unsplash or as a paid download with a watermarked image and the non watermarked image is restricted or "NFT gated" or "submarined" to use Pinata parlance (which makes a file private on the IPFS network) to only those who have purchased a particular NFT. You could also have your content unlocked with a retweet on Twitter as a way to get exposure.

Print-on-demand

You will be able to import the metadata: name/title & description and the image which can be added to a template to create a printable item.

This IPFS-hosted metadata and IPFS link:

Will be able to produce this:

And this:

Produce this:

Which can be loaded into a system and used to print posters, t-shirts, mouse pads etc.

Advertising

Like any online service storage space and bandwidth needs to be paid for. If a creator is sharing their content for free advertising is the easiest ways to pay for it. Images that has been monetized by advertising will have a various details attached to it: owner, views, downloads and even revenue. Images can then be traded based on this.

Miscellaneous

Network Bar

The network bar is found right at the top of the page and contains the current blockchain network you are using (that the NFT will be minted to), the current price in USD of the cryptocurrency of that network (that will be needed to pay fees), your (wallet) balance of the currency (native) and where you can buy more.

Technical Bar

The technical bar contains the IPFS provider the user is on, the gateway it is using and the web3 provider.

Moderation Tools

There are moderation tools such as a image stream on the platform for website and contract owners to view all images uploaded and minted as NFT's.

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