zkInspire: Introducing Proof Of Inspiration & Fair Royalties
zkInspire lets creators prove when their work is inspired by others, without revealing private details.
It ensures that original creators automatically get paid when others build on their work and new creators benefit from algorithmic boost, making creativity fair, provable, and rewarding. Using cryptography, it proves inspiration without exposing creative secrets and automatically shares earnings through built-in royalty splits.
It ensures that original creators automatically get paid when others build on their work and new creators benefit from algorithmic boost, making creativity fair, provable, and rewarding. Using cryptography, it proves inspiration without exposing creative secrets and automatically shares earnings through built-in royalty splits.
SB
by Smit Bafna
Proof Of Inspiration
Proof of Inspiration is a cryptographic receipt for creativity. It lets creators provably link their work to another creator’s work without exposing any details of how or why. Think of it like attaching an invisible, verifiable tag that says:
“This work was inspired by that work and I can prove it, privately.”
This turns inspiration into an onchain asset, not just a vague social credit. Right now, creativity online is built on likes and shares but no money flows to the people who actually start trends, memes, or creative breakthroughs.
- Remixes become streams of value flowing automatically to the creators who inspired them.
- No gatekeepers → no platforms taking cuts → no messy copyright battles.
- Privacy stays intact and the world sees that “this work came from that one,” but not how or why unless you want them to.
It’s programmable inspiration with built-in economics.
Step-by-Step Flow
Step 1: Upload Creative Work
Creators upload their work to IPFS, generating a unique contentHash that serves as an immutable reference. This decentralized storage ensures content authenticity while keeping on-chain costs minimal.
Step 2: Create Original Content
Original creators call
createContent() with NFT metadata, IPFS contentHash, and ETH payment. The contract emits a ContentCreated event and integrates with Zora Factory to mint a tradeable NFT immediately.Step 3: Declare Remix & Generate zkProof
Derivative creators generate a zkProofHash locally and set their revenue share (max 50%). The system supports simple declarations or mathematical similarity proofs while maintaining content privacy.
Step 4: Mint Derivative NFT
Creators call
createDerivativeWithInspiration() with the original contentId, metadata, revenue share percentage, and zkProof. The contract validates the original exists and enforces the 50% revenue share limit.Step-by-Step Flow
Step 5: Verify zkProof
The contract auto-verifies proofs when zkProofHash is non-zero, sets zkVerified to true, and emits an InspirationClaimed event. This enables real-time UI updates and prevents fraudulent claims.
Step 6: Update Inspiration Graph
The system increments totalDerivatives on original content, calculates derivation depth, and updates creator reputation scores including totalDerivatives, totalInspirations, and successfulCollaborations metrics.
Step 7: Configure Revenue Distribution
Smart contracts automatically calculate splits:
originalShare = amount × revenueShareBps ÷ 10000,
platformFee = 2.5%, derivativeShare = remainder.
Revenue flows through Zora's existing fee structure seamlessly.
Step 8: Handle Disputes
Original creators and platform moderators can call
disputeInspiration() to flag suspicious claims. Disputed claims are marked for community review, maintaining system integrity while preserving decentralization.Step 9: Enable Discovery
The
calculateRankingScore() function ranks content based on derivatives count, creator reputation, and engagement. Events feed indexing services like The Graph for real-time discovery and analytics dashboards.How We Handle Proof of Inspiration & Fraud Risks
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Approach 1: Cryptographic Proofs (Where Possible)
When a derivative work directly reuses parts of an original (e.g., images, text), we use zk-SNARKs to cryptographically prove derivation without exposing the content. This works for clear remix cases creators prove “I used part of this work” in zero-knowledge, enabling provable royalty flows.
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Approach 2: Incentive Alignment for Subjective Inspiration
For subjective or abstract inspiration, we reward honesty by aligning incentives. Declaring inspiration unlocks royalty revenue, exposure to the original creator’s audience, and boosted visibility. Lying isn’t worth it: false claims hurt reputation, can be flagged, and rarely generate sales. Honesty pays more.
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Approach 3: Community Adjudication
Disputed or fraudulent claims can be escalated to a DAO-based review process. Users can flag bad actors, with slashing or penalties for proven fraud. Fraud reporters receive bounties, creating an economic layer of accountability backed by the community itself.
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Approach 4: Market Forces Make Lying Unattractive
Even if someone lies, market dynamics punish irrelevant or low-effort derivatives. If a remix falsely claims inspiration, audiences ignore it → no sales → no reward. Economic gravity pulls creators toward honesty naturally, reinforced by social and protocol incentives.
Inspiration Graph
The Inspiration Graph is like a family tree of creativity. Every time someone creates something new whether it’s a meme, song, video, or article they can declare what inspired them. That connection gets recorded on-chain forever.
Over time, this builds a public web of creative influence:
→ Who inspired who → Who built on whose ideas → How creativity evolves.
→ Who inspired who → Who built on whose ideas → How creativity evolves.
It’s like giving credit automatically and when someone earns credit, they also earn royalties whenever their influence generates new value. We map creative lineage as a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) onchain.
- Each node is a creative work.
- Parent nodes are upstream inspirations.
- zkProofHash offers verifiable commitment.
Why a DAG?
- Visualise influence pathways.
- Automate multi-hop royalties efficiently.
- Cryptographically prove originality.
Tokenomics & Royalties
Our model ensures fair compensation and protocol sustainability.
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Recursive Royalties
Percentage of sale routed to upstream creators (up to 3 levels).
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Platform Revenue
2.5% fee to Treasury DAO. Funds protocol and grants.
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Creator Staking
Optional staking for yield on successful remixes.
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Referral Incentives
Earn a percentage for sharing and minting.
Example: 1 ETH remix sale → 3% to original creator. 2.5% to protocol. Rest to seller.
Roadmap: Future of zkInspire
Our phased approach ensures continuous innovation and expansion.