Topic: Software licensing (Read 571 times)

Hi there.  I'm very new to the btc community, so apologies in advance if this is a horrible question/post. 

I'm interested in blockchain applications such as software licensing.

I'm a PHP developer and run a SaaS app in the eCommerce space (a Magento extension).  I'm particularly interested in ways that blockchain software licensing might be used in order to help with extension fraud which is pretty rampant in the Magento community.

I'm still in the process of trying to wrap my head around what the best approach to this would be.  One idea I had would be for extension vendors to be able to verify extensions that are are in use on a given online store (based on it's URL), without the website having to publicly expose that data (which would be a security disclosure in many cases).

So, for example, when the extension vendor sells the extension to the store owner, it includes a publicly accessible token, probably in a text file.  Something like: onlinestore.com/extension-list.pub.  That would contain a public key of some sort or some chunk of data, which only the extension vendor could "unlock" with their private key.

This would of course not prevent store owners from copying the source code and using it illegitimately, but it would be a way for legitimate customers to publicly whitelist themselves and prove that they are legitimately using all of the extensions they've purchased.

There could also be a hall of shame website showing all of the store owners that were not validated by extension vendors.

Look forward to your feedback - thanks!