NFT provenance and content must be blockchain-based

In the last few months, thousands of new NFT platforms and issuers have emerged, each one promising timeless value and authenticity. Unfortunately, most of them will be dead internet links before next summer, and a substantial fraction of them are publishing unauthorized work. Unfortunately, many people will be deceived.

While some notable exceptions manage to store or generate their media from on-chain resources and have their contract tied to a verified address, these solutions are in the minority and are difficult to authenticate. Additionally, on-chain resources are typically quite limited, so these offerings are almost universally limited to pixel-art genres or generative mathematical constructs — not everyone’s cup of tea from an artistic perspective.

Many projects have claimed to authenticate provenance, but all we have seen are centralized and require access to off-chain resources. One day, they will go dark — in most cases within a year, when they run out of money.

The problem is manifold.

There is a lack of trustworthy provenance and no way to quickly verify the ones that can be trusted. Most NFT resources are stored on servers, not on the blockchain — meaning one day, someone will stop paying the bill, the server will go down, or the hosting company will disappear. On the internet, few things last forever. Unfortunately, it is easy to launch a smart contract hosting an NFT collection claiming to be someone you are not, containing malicious code, or otherwise abuse the public trust — and there is little, if anything, anyone can do about it.

In short, there is no governance. Compounding this, the governance that does exist is centralized. Creators seeking legitimacy get locked into publishing platforms where they do not control the presentation of their art. A change in business models or a business failure could destroy the functionality and value of their creations.

PRüF addresses all of these issues and more.

PRüF is a protocol, not a platform. This means that anyone can implement the protocol to launch or upgrade their tokenization or token management platform. Using the audited contract infrastructure on any included blockchain, creators and brands can deploy on the protocol without writing any code — so they can deploy in minutes instead of months. Using the libraries we provide, they can create a custom web presence so that their portal to the protocol infrastructure showcases their offerings in a way consistent with their branding and message.

The PRüF protocol is decentralized. Each token minter operates a Node, allowing them to control minting and business logic on the assets they mint. This gives Node holders built-in monetization options and markets for their offerings. Nodes can be verified to belong to an individual or brand and exclusively own that identity.

Governed by the PRüF DAO, nodes are held accountable by the community of Nodes and the token holders that stake on them. Bad actors can be dealt with, and customers can easily verify that the article they buy is genuine.

Importantly, PRüF encourages users to use blockchain storage with built-in storage protocols. Seamlessly connecting to storage-centric chains such as arWeave, PRüF offers all-blockchain media storage that can include full-resolution images, audio, video, software, documents, and more — permanently and affordably stored on-chain. We implement content-addressable storage directly on Ethereum, Polygon, and other EVM-based chains for smaller or less price-sensitive applications. For non-permanent storage, IPFS can still be utilized (most existing platforms use IPFS, which is dependent on keeping a server online to “pin” content to the network.)

The PRüF protocol solves data permanence, branding, and authenticity in the asset tokenization space. DAO managed, with built-in commerce and curated brand experiences, PRüF offers a trusted, no-code solution for brands and creators to bring NFT assets to a multi-chain, distributed ecosystem.

The PRüF protocol makes tokenization what it always should have been: Verifiably authentic, permanent, decentralized, and blockchain agnostic.