PRüF FAQ

At its core, PRüF is a privacy-first provenance platform that provides instant verification of ownership, authenticity, and item provenance. In addition to these core functions, PRüF can be used to manage escrows, collateralized loans, layaways, private sales, and much, much more.

PRüF is a really new project. What has the team accomplished so far?

As you said, we’re just getting started, but we’ve done a lot already. The core contract infrastructure and the basic set of business logic contracts are done, audited, and deployed on the testnet. We have the MVP dapp interface publicly available (on the testnet) at pruf.io, and the PRüF utility token is live on the ethereum mainnet. We are having a seed round presale right now through Jan 30, you can check it out at pruf.io.

Can you please elaborate on the decentralization of PRüF?

PRüF accomplishes decentralization primarily through the use of independent nodes.

Nodes are operated by companies or individuals and act as management portals for different classes of assets. Node operators control the fees and business logic of assets in their class and act as independent portals to the PRüF ecosystem.
In addition to independent Node operators, we will be rolling out fully decentralized nodes that feature crowdsourced provisioning, staking, and crowdsourced governance.

Decentralized governance for the entire ecosystem is planned, and the entire infrastructure is designed to eventually be controlled by decentralized governance contracts.

PRüF is described as privacy-first. What does that mean, and how does PRüF protect user privacy?

The PRüF protocol does not store personally identifiable information on the blockchain. This is important because, by design, the blockchain is a living public document. Anything stored on the blockchain is inherently public. PRüF uses user data to create digital “shadows” of the information it is given, and the original information is discarded. Like a shadow, the data cannot be used to recreate the original scene, but it is a unique imprint that can be used to verify that a scene matches the shadow or does not.

By not storing your information, PRüF data becomes immune to breaches, hackers, or other methods of coercion — the data is simply not there to take.

Privacy and security are almost always a tradeoff with functionality. PRüF meets this challenge in two ways:

PRüF allows a specific user (and only that user) to prove that they are the owner or authorized party to a single specific asset. This limitation is a privacy feature in our case because it prevents “looking up” users’ listings on the blockchain.

While privacy is important, sometimes we wish to make things public. PRüF allows for this as well, by linking assets to publicly readable (or encrypted) information accessible online. This way, users can publish what they want to make public while retaining control of their privacy.

I am a crypto investor and I only care about the value prospects of the token, why should I choose your token over another?

PRüF tokens have intrinsic value within the PRüF ecosystem.
They are burned to create new ACNodes. Node operators spend PRüF to upgrade their nodes for higher profitability. PRüF is used by users or node operators to operate business functions within the system. All asset management functions such as listings, transfers, escrows, status changes, etc may require PRüF, depending on the configuration of the relevant ACNode.

Right now, PRüF is very early stage, so token usage is low and is mostly HODLers, but PRüF enabling a single product line from a major manufacturer will generate millions of new PRüF items and users per year on the system — and that is just one major product.

PRüF is in it for the long haul. The team is invested in the project. The team’s tokens will be unlocked over four years starting in 2022, so we are deeply committed to the lasting value of the PRüF ecosystem.

Many investors just focus on the short term price of a project’s token instead of the real value of the project. Can you explain the value of the PRüF ecosystem over the long term?

One of the biggest problems with most projects is that they don’t solve any problems outside of the blockchain space. PRüF is a real solution to real problems that people and businesses face every day.

PRüF helps companies to eliminate counterfeit products, which is a problem that costs trillions in lost revenue, over 3% of global trade.

PRüF helps individuals prove and manage physical ownership so they can buy and sell goods and services with ease and confidence, and when Marketspace rolls out it will include PRüF as a universal, global medium of value exchange.
Did you know that as many as one in 50 cash notes are counterfeit in some major European markets? PRüF can be used for cash businesses to secure their cash holdings, fight counterfeits, and deter theft. Theft and counterfeits are significant problems for cash businesses, and PRüF can help.

These are just a few of the many, many possible uses for a universal, extensible asset management system like PRüF. Since the PRüF ecosystem is customizable, extendable, and upgradeable, it is possible or even likely that the most important uses for PRüF haven’t even been thought of yet.

What do you mean when you say that PRüF is extendable and upgradeable?

The PRüF infrastructure is modular and designed to securely connect to custom contracts to enable any type of business logic imaginable.
Custom contracts might include collateralized loans, layaways, escrows pending delivery, structured sales contracts, or any other type of business logic involving assets, payments, and time or other information oracles.
As for upgradeability, our contracts are designed to be upgraded in place. This means that a new contract can be launched to replace or extend an existing one without an interruption of service or user action required.

Why would I want to choose PRüF instead of one of the many other projects out there right now? What makes PRüF unique, and what is the market potential?

PRüF solves real problems for individuals while addressing significant pain points for international commerce. Most projects are just copying existing innovations in the already crowded DeFi space, and they aren’t bringing in any new value to the crypto ecosystem.
You can only put so many fish in the same bowl before they start eating each other….Real-world projects like PRüF bring in new value to the space, instead of just trying to grab an ever-decreasing share of a limited resource.

Just the anti-counterfeit packaging market, which PRüF is well-positioned to disrupt, is a 100 billion dollar market and is expected to nearly double in size by 2026.

What will PRüF do to create massive adoption?

That’s one of our secret superpowers, so we’re glad you asked!
Adoption is a huge issue for most projects in the cryptocurrency space. Most people know little or nothing about blockchain technology. Even fewer people actually hold or use crypto.

PRüF onboards users in bulk without them even knowing that they are using the blockchain. When a major upmarket manufacturer uses PRüF so that their customers know that they aren’t buying fakes, customers scan the tags in the store with their phones to verify their authenticity. All they know is whether a product is authentic or not — the blockchain operations are doing the work in the background.
After purchase, they can register their purchase on the brand’s portal. Without ever touching a crypto wallet, they are now a PRüF user. The brand owner handles all of the blockchain interaction in their back-office infrastructure.

Users in managed asset classes can prove provenance, perform transfers, and most other basic operations. Later, If a user decides to, they can export their asset to an unmanaged node and hold their asset in their wallet.
Whether a user chooses to learn about the full functionality of their PRüF asset or not, millions of users will be onboarded every year by each major manufacturer using PRüF.

What is an ACNode, why would I want one, and how can I get one?

ACNodes are the key to PRüF’s decentralization. Each item in PRüF is given a “class” or type. For example, let’s examine the case for a TREK500 mountain bike. It might be assigned a type “TREK bicycles”, and “TREK bicycles”, in turn, is a subtype of the root class; “bicycles”. Each class or type is managed by an ACNode.

The holder of the ACNode (the holder of the ERC721 token that acts as the key to node administration) is in charge of setting the payment address and price points for specific actions within their asset class.
The ACNode holder also chooses the namespace that describes their node. In our example, the owner of the “trek bicycles” ACNode might have exclusive use of the “Trek Bicycles” keyword and the trek-bicycles.pruf.io domain referrer, as well as the app.pruf.io/trek-bicyles namespace.
An ACNode holder can earn PRüF when users make transfers or changes to their records. Users within an asset class will be directed to the corresponding ACNode holders PRüF portal, which may also lead to additional revenue events such as upgrades, accessory sales, service contracts, repair services, brand education, additional sales, etc.

ACNodes are obtained in the PRüF ecosystem through the AC admin dashboard in the PRüF web app. This allows potential node owners to trade PRüF for an ACNode of their choosing. PRüF used to obtain an ACNode is burned by the ACManager contract. Once a user holds an ACNode token, they can then set the pricing, namespace, and other details of the corresponding asset class (AC), enabling them to fully customize their ACNode portal to provide an optimal user experience.

Soon, the PRüF team will roll out decentralized nodes, which can be formed through cooperative funding and feature user staking for profit sharing. Eventually, these nodes will feature fully decentralized governance as an option.

I see a lot of people in the PRüF Telegram Group are anxious for exchange and tracker listings. Any estimated time when this will happen?

Right now, we are focused on development and buildout. These are very early days, and we are not planning on focusing on exchanges or trackers until after our main token offering.
At the moment, with our little airdrop and this limited public offering of the utility token, we are building our core community, doing meme and bug bounties, and learning how to manage social media and publicity on a limited scale.
The seed presale is for people who want to join the project at the basement level, and are not worried about exchange listings or liquidity until after the main public offerings.

Where do you and the PRüF team see the world of blockchain in the coming years, and what role will PRüF play in changes to the space?

Blockchain is slowly taking over many industries, and cryptocurrency adoption is growing every day. It’s only a matter of time before distributed consensus protocols take over the vast majority of financial and provenance markets, simply because they are the best tools for the job.

There is nothing that conventional ledgers can do that blockchain can’t do better. Of course, there are limitations and inefficiencies in current solutions, but those are a result of legacy problems that have already been solved. It will take time, but modern solutions will be integrated into the popular chains, and new projects will be launched that bring low cost, high-speed blockchains to the forefront of the financial world.
Fully realized, PRüF will generate tens of millions of micro-transactions per day. Obviously, this will require a level of performance and economy that does not yet exist — but high capacity applications like PRüF are driving the edge of blockchain performance, and PRüF will either move to a more performant platform or launch our own when the time comes.

Many new projects made a good impression at first but were suddenly abandoned. How can I be sure that PRüF is going to be around for the long term?

PRüF has carefully aligned incentives to make sure that the project continues to grow. The team’s tokens are unlocked over 4 years to keep development and buildout going strong. Aside from these tokens, the PRüF team and private investors will be paid a fraction of ongoing contract revenue, aligning team and investor incentives for long term viability.

Do you have any bounty programs? Who can join? How can I participate and earn PRüF?

We currently have a full bug bounty program, as well as daily meme contests and social media bounties over at t.me/pruftalk. Check t.me/prufevents for announcements and program details.