Elastos imagines a future where individuals are empowered to control every aspect of their digital lives—owning their data, managing digital assets, and running decentralised nodes. Within this framework, Elacity plays a pivotal role by offering a decentralised Digital Rights Management (dDRM) platform that ensures creators can protect, manage, and monetise their content in a fully transparent and decentralised manner.

As part of a partnership with hardware manufacturers, Elacity is integrating these capabilities into physical devices, allowing for a easy connection between decentralised digital rights and real-world products. This collaboration is expected to come to fruition by Q1 2025 and opens up the possibility of running decentralised, blockchain-governed nodes on hardware, making the Elastos SmartWeb vision of millions of globally distributed nodes a reality. So, what actually is it? Let’s dive in!

 

The Elastos Vision: SmartWeb for Everyone

The SmartWeb concept is central to Elastos’ mission—creating a decentralised version of the internet where individuals, rather than corporations, hold full control over their data, assets, and online presence. This decentralised framework ensures that users own their data and digital creations while transacting and interacting through a secure blockchain infrastructure.

As the internet continues to grow and expand, so does the SmartWeb, but it’s driven by people, not centralised servers. By combining blockchain, decentralised identity, and peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies, the SmartWeb enables a future where users operate their own nodes and manage their online experiences on their terms.

 

Elacity dDRM v2: Redefining Digital Ownership

Elacity’s dDRM v2 is an upcoming decentralised Smart-Contract as a Service system for managing digital rights through blockchain-powered licencing agreements, offering features such as time-based access NFTs, channels with subscription models, and fractionalised royalty markets. It allows content creators to define who has access to their digital content, when, and under what conditions—all secured and enforced by smart contracts on the blockchain.

Key New Features of Elacity dDRM v2:

• Subscription Models with Time-Based NFTs: Creators can offer access to a library of content for a set period using time-limited NFTs, providing a flexible and easy way for users to engage with digital content.
• Fractionalised Royalty Markets: Creators and stakeholders can issue and trade royalty tokens, where each token represents a fractional percentage (e.g., 0.01%) of future revenue from digital content. Payments are automatic, happening in real time whenever content is accessed or sold.

These features enable a robust and decentralised digital economy, where creators, consumers, and other stakeholders engage in transparent and immediate transactions.

 

Runtime: Secure Rights Enforcement on Hardware Devices

A critical element in Elacity’s strategy is Runtime, WebAssemby software which runs locally via browser and can be installed into hardware devices to act as part of the decentralised ecosystem. With Runtime installed, hardware devices can verify user rights on the blockchain before receiving licences from smartcontracts to decrypt and play content, ensuring that only those with the appropriate NFTs or access tokens can use the content.

How Runtime Works:

• Blockchain Verification: Runtime queries the blockchain to check for access rights in real-time, ensuring that content is only accessible by authorised users.
• On-Device Decryption: Once access is verified, the device decrypts the content locally, providing a secure and private experience that doesn’t rely on centralised servers.

This technology allows hardware to become an integral part of the SmartWeb, enabling secure digital rights management and content playback directly from consumer devices like smart cameras, digital frames, and more.

 

Real-World Elacity B2B DePIN Use Cases

The combination of Runtime and decentralised node hosting unlocks powerful use cases for businesses in the DePIN ecosystem. These include real-time, automated payments and decentralised hosting for digital content, enabling businesses to create new revenue streams and engage with customers in a more transparent and secure way.

Examples of B2B DePIN Use Cases:

• Decentralised Advertising: Hardware devices can host digital signage and operate as decentralised nodes where advertisers pay based on blockchain-verified engagement metrics.

• Private Content Channels: Businesses can create their own private content channels hosted on DePIN nodes, where users subscribe to curated content directly from the company. Payments and royalties are distributed instantly based on blockchain records.

• Subscription-Based Digital Content: With time-based NFTs, businesses can offer subscription services to their content libraries. Devices like smart frames or cameras ensure that only authorised users have access during their subscription period.

These use cases demonstrate how businesses can move beyond traditional infrastructure and adopt a decentralized model that offers transparent payment distribution and independent content hosting.

 

Elacity Channels Hosted on DePIN Nodes & Hardware Devices

Elacity’s partnership with hardware manufacturers presents a unique opportunity for users to host their own channels and services on DePIN (Decentralised Physical Infrastructure Networks) nodes directly from their devices. These devices will not only serve as access points for dDRM-protected content but also as SmartWeb nodes in a global decentralised network for other services and solutions.

Independent Hosting on DePIN Nodes:

• Elastos Hive / IPFS: Devices can act as storage nodes using the Elastos Hive system, which is built on IPFS (InterPlanetary File System). This allows users to store, access, and share content securely and independently, without relying on centralised services.
• Elastos Carrier: For peer-to-peer communication, devices can also run Elastos Carrier nodes, which facilitate secure and private messaging or data transfers directly between users.
• DePIN and Other Decentralised Protocols: Users can run additional decentralised nodes like Nostr and DePIN solutions, supporting censorship-resistant communication, GPU rendering for AI and bandwidth support for content, allowing for fully independent, user-owned networks which reward owners for decentralised cloud solutions.

With these systems in place, every device becomes a part of the decentralised web, hosting content, managing communication, and enabling real-time transactions on behalf of its users. This enables Elacity’s services to function on a truly decentralised scale, where millions of nodes can operate across the globe.

 

A Decentralised Economy in Action

With Elacity’s dDRM v2, channels and licencing services can be independently hosted on devices acting as decentralised SmartWeb nodes. This global network of decentralised devices on the Elastos SmartWeb, powered by blockchain, peer-to-peer communication, and secure storage, ensures that users and businesses have complete control over their digital lives. As decentralised nodes become commonplace, Elastos’ SmartWeb vision becomes a reality—an open, user-controlled internet where digital assets and communications flow freely, securely, and independently.

Elacity’s expansion with partners into real-world devices and its integration of dDRM, decentralised nodes, and Runtime mark a significant step toward achieving Elastos’ SmartWeb vision. With opportunities for users and businesses to host their own channels, run decentralised nodes, and engage in peer-to-peer transactions, the future of decentralised digital ownership is just beginning. As we continue to build this decentralised infrastructure, we invite everyone to follow Elacity and join us in creating a digital world where the people who use them fully own data, assets, and networks.