Curation with PRüF NFTs

PRüF for cultural artifact preservation

Even in the careful custody of museums and conservatories, physical objects are subject to deterioration over time. Likewise, simply storing a digital copy in a safe place does not ensure its long-term viability.

Blockchain storage offers a new kind of data permanence, one where data is constantly being populated and copied to new devices, forever and constantly renewed by virtue of the incentivized activity of a global network of distributed nodes.

PRüF is a blockchain based asset provenance and management platform for both physical and digital objects.

For physical objects, PRüF stores important information about an object’s custody, provenance, authenticity, and history on the blockchain, including accompanying digital files or documents.

For digital items, PRüF stores the entire object and its presentation context as a collection of digital files, along with an extensive set of metadata. The object’s originating authority is included within so it can be traced back to its creator, making it easy to verify its authenticity.

Since PRüF is designed to manage both digital and physical artifacts, it is possible to create a unique hybrid form that is perfect for the curation and preservation of important cultural artifacts

Using a robust, multi-platform protocol such as PRüF, archivists can ensure the long-term viability of digitized versions of priceless cultural heritage pieces, publicly accessible for generations to come with little or no ongoing expense.

PRüF carries no inherent limitations on the size or presentation context of stored information. In addition to photos, movies, and documents, digital artifacts may include 3D Scans of the external and internal structure of objects to capture not only the image but also the texture and internal construction of objects. Virtual or augmented-reality experiences, movies, and interactive exhibits can be stored along with a self-contained presentation context, so even far into the future they can be experienced without the need for any external plugins or software.

Including the presentation context within the object ensures that even with evolving standards, PRüF created content will remain accessible into the future. (Flash, anyone?) Because of this unique, self-contained aspect of tokenized objects made using the PRüF protocol, PRüF created objects will remain accessible to humanity even if the website of the issuer or platform on which they were built (or even the PRüF protocol itself) were to be abandoned and go dark. Even then, PRüF created items will still be directly viewable using a standard browser, using their original reference URL.

By storing both digital representations and context together on the blockchain, PRüF enabled NFT experiences are perpetually renewed and made globally accessible to future generations. In addition to sharing their cultural or artistic significance, PRüF enabled blockchain artifacts will continue to generate value for curators, collections, and conservators by driving awareness, traffic, and revenue to their institutions or galleries. Because of the unique characteristics of the PRüF protocol, platforms based on PRüF are ideally suited for the curation of art, collections, and the collective cultural heritage of humanity.