Gravatar has made the next logical progression as blockchain continues to become more prevalent in everyday life. For those who may not be familiar with it, Gravatar is simply a way to upload an image (or avatar) that can be used everywhere—blogs, web forums and virtually any site that has included the Gravatar plugin. Thanks to one of the more prolific developers on Bitcoin SV (BSV), unwriter, the capability now moves to the next level and can be found on the BSV blockchain through bitpic.
Through the integration of Paymail, bitpic gives users the ability to upload and permanently store their avatar on BSV. It is a protocol created by unwriter that hosts the avatars and which will eventually be found everywhere that Gravatar is found, as well as on more sites due to its easy integration.
Introducing Bitpic: Your own universal avatar on bitcoin, forever.https://t.co/Ts8pxgBZme
— _unwriter (@_unwriter) December 10, 2019
According to the product’s description, “The images are 100% stored on the Bitcoin blockchain, signed by Paymail user identity public key. Images signed with invalid signature are not indexed.” The protocol behind it is completely open and distributed, meaning anyone can run a bitpic node.
To upload and use the avatar, the process is simple. A user creates a Bitcoin transaction to upload a signed image using the bitpic protocol. After the image is uploaded, it can be used anywhere by referencing the bitpic URL followed by the Paymail address.
One of the cool features of bitpic is that it is a Planaria node. This means that it creates a mutable database and file system, which allows the user to change the avatar at will. If a new avatar is uploaded using the same Paymail address, the new image replaces the old one immediately and in real-time.
unwriter adds about the new creation, “Your avatar forever: Paymail providers and wallet providers may disappear in hundreds of years, but your Bitpic avatar will never go away because it’s on the blockchain. If you post something tied to your Paymail, you probably want the avatar to show up forever even after thousands of years. Bitpic allows that, because Bitpic is an infinite state machine powered by Planaria.”
The protocol is also “interoperable and permissionless.” Wallet app developers can easily implement the solution without having to ask permission from other apps or wallets, since the avatars are delivered from a “single source of truth: the Bitcoin blockchain.”
New to blockchain? Check out CoinGeek’s Blockchain for Beginners section, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about blockchain technology.
