UC faculty unveil startup platform to redefine NIL landscape

Blockchain to monetize brand identity, achievements and influence

Scholarships represent a vital lifeline for students by offering crucial support for tuition, textbooks and other essential expenses. However, many scholarships have specific renewal criteria that students must meet to continue receiving funding.

As the director of the Kautz-Uible Cryptoeconomics Lab in the University of Cincinnati’s Digital Futures research building, Michael Jones, PhD, grappled with verifying students' eligibility for scholarships year after year. Traditionally, students navigate a labyrinth of hurdles, from procuring letters of recommendation to verifying attendance at various events.

Because of these challenges, Jones partnered with colleague Jordan Tate, professor of fine arts at UC’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning to launch the startup company, Carbon Copy Assets, or CCA.

In the fall, CCA will launch a mobile application where students earn badges and rewards for verifying their participation at campus events like career fairs, student club meetings and volunteer opportunities. Students will also prove that they are building job and life skills such as financial and legal literacy. A blockchain will record these activities, allowing donors and employers to view a publicly verifiable, immutable list of achievements.

Building blocks

Jones and Tate believe blockchains are fundamental building blocks of the digital economy.

“Whenever students tap their own phones to a hardware chip embedded in a physical tag at the entrance to the UC career fair, their time and location can be stamped and recorded on a blockchain,” Jones said. “Only someone’s physical presence at an event can activate this type of attestation. Furthermore, because the evidence is stored on a blockchain, the university can trust a student’s claim of meeting scholarship-related activities since the technology makes it virtually impossible to back-date an activity or change values in a record.”

The mobile app’s benefit is that it ensures the uninterrupted flow of financial assistance, enabling students to devote their energies to academic pursuits. Removing the burdensome distraction of managing, tracking and reporting requirements will also help students avoid missing deadlines or seeking alternative funding avenues.

Name, image and likeness (NIL)

Carbon Copy Assets dashboard image. Photo/Carbon Copy Assets

While creating a solution to the scholarship challenge, Jones and Tate quickly realized that they were building a reputation and personal brand management platform that would be particularly helpful for students involved in competitive athletics. In a world where the Supreme Court recently granted student-athletes the freedom to monetize their name, image and likeness (NIL) through corporate marketing deals, companies and students have difficulty finding each other — making the need for robust reputation management even greater.

“With rapid advances in generative artificial intelligence, athletic scholars wanted a way to prove their reputation and marketability, and our app delivers that capability for students,” Tate said.

In addition, most companies in the NIL marketing space focus only on collegiate athletes. However, Carbon Copy Assets offers a solution to all students on a university campus. Jones and Tate recognize that the best match for a company marketing campaign might be someone other than a university-level sports performer. A student club president or a high-achieving journalism student could be the perfect brand influencer.

What began as a quest to streamline scholarship renewal evolved into something far more significant — an on-chain reputation platform for students. The CCA platform certifies students' academic endeavors and empowers students to showcase their multifaceted talents beyond the confines of the playing field. Cultivating their brand discovery and development can help students open doors to employment opportunities and corporate collaborations.

CCA’s ultimate goal is to work with universities, students, donors and brand partners to create an ecosystem that allows students to pair with brand partners while simplifying tax filings and contract management.

Participating in the Venture Lab program and working with the Technology Transfer Office was a huge benefit for us. The expertise of experienced mentors and exposure to potential investors through the 1819 ecosystem were extremely valuable. From legal advice in protecting our IP to business plan strategies, they provided us with the tools we needed to take our technology to the next level.

Michael Jones, PhD UC director of the Kautz-Uible Cryptoeconomics Lab

Expediting solutions

The faculty co-founders of CCA participated in the UC Venture Lab pre-accelerator program inside the 1819 Innovation Hub. The mentor-based program is designed to fast-track early-stage companies' growth by providing industry resources, entrepreneurial guidance and funding to scale startups from concept to commercialization.

The team received $115,000 in entrepreneurship funding through the program. Moreover, as part of 1819's partnership with tech titan Microsoft, CCA has been admitted to their Startups Founders Hub, granting them access to Azure software credits worth up to $150,000.

“Participating in the Venture Lab program and working with the Technology Transfer Office was a huge benefit for us," Jones said. "The expertise of experienced mentors and exposure to potential investors through the 1819 ecosystem were extremely valuable. From legal advice in protecting our IP to business plan strategies, they provided us with the tools we needed to take our technology to the next level.”

Jones and Tate shared how the program emphasized the importance of customer discovery and encouraged them to engage with student-athletes and brands to understand their challenges directly. As cohorts, they collaborated with Venture Lab mentors such as Carlo Cruz at Toyota Ventures, Tim Metzner at Fireroad Ventures and Joe Maruschak at Aventurine Capital Group, as well as a program entrepreneur-in-residence, Stefan Kyntchev, who continues to advise CCA technically.

The Office of Technology Transfer has worked with Jones and Tate to file a patent application protecting the UC-owned intellectual property (IP) developed in the Kautz-Uible Cryptoeconomics Lab. The company has signed an option agreement giving it the exclusive and first right to license the IP.

Liftoff

Jessica Davis' Carbon Copy Assets dashboard with a head shot phot and biographical information.

Jessica Davis' Carbon Copy Assets dashboard. Photo/Carbon Copy Assets

CCA launched in August 2023 and worked with a handful of UC students during the fall semester to test their technology. Jones and Tate equipped students with a deeper understanding of their brand value. Students who tested the CCA platform told Jones and Tate that it surpassed the limitations of conventional tracking metrics, such as athletic performance.

“In our work with students, we found that we created a better way for students to manage, grow and quantify their personal brand identity by accumulating digital badges demonstrating offline and online activities," Tate said. "These badges unveil an authentic essence of what makes each student truly unique.”

The app, slated for a fall release, promises to be a game-changer for student-athletes. As Jones elaborated, those who demonstrate their skills and accomplishments through digital badges on the platform will become eligible for lucrative influencer marketing collaborations with prominent corporate brands. This innovative approach rewards athletic talent, empowering individuals to leverage their brands by opening doors to unique opportunities that extend beyond the playing field.

“CCA is an insightful and vital application that will allow student-athletes to excel not only in sport but also in NIL and branding themselves,” said Jessica Davis, a member of the UC women’s swim team. “It has been a pleasure helping give insights into the development process and seeing great progress for our school’s NIL infrastructure.”

What's next

Reflecting on their landmark initiative, Jones and Tate envision a future where blockchain streamlines administrative processes and fosters a culture of transparency and empowerment. Through the CCA application, corporate brands can trust the student-athletes' verified metrics, which include academic performance, community and social reputation. Companies are more inclined to partner with student-athletes with a good reputation that aligns with their brand.

Additionally, the team believes the technology can help UC redefine the intersection of academia, sports and personal brand.

“We are currently exploring how artificial intelligence (AI) can improve our product,” Jones said. “AI algorithms can analyze an athlete's social media engagement and brand preferences to craft personalized strategies. AI can also help the matching process between student-athletes and brands. By evaluating compatibility based on factors like audience demographics and marketing objectives, AI can recommend partnerships that are likely to be mutually beneficial.”

Featured image at top: Jordan Tate, left, and Michael Jones, cofounders of Carbon Copy Assets. Photo/Carbon Copy Assets

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