Making a faked history detectable
Most art fraud is a story problem: a forged certificate, a back-dated provenance, an image quietly swapped for another. Attesian is built so that each of those leaves evidence rather than passing unnoticed.
Certificates are signed and can't be forged without the key. The ledger is append-only and anchored daily, so a history can't be back-dated or altered without breaking a published, independently timestamped fingerprint. And the trust tier exposes claims that only one party has made.
Forged certificates fail the check
Every certificate is verified against Attesian's published signing key. A fabricated or edited certificate simply doesn't validate.
Back-dating breaks the anchor
The daily Merkle root, timestamped via OpenTimestamps, fixes the record's state as of a date. Inserting or altering an earlier event is detectable by anyone.
Honest about what fingerprints can do
The image fingerprint flags a swapped picture for flat work, but it can't tell edition copies apart or fully cover three-dimensional pieces — so identity also rests on the registry and attestation, and the record says so.
Questions
- How do I report a suspected fake or misattribution?
- Email trust@attesian.com. Because history is only ever added to, false entries are addressed with visible corrections rather than quiet deletion, and unlawful conduct can be referred to the authorities.