By putting your artwork on the "BitCoin Blockchain",
Verisart will hand wavy magic increase the trust in
art dealers and reduce fraud.
That's a pretty neat idea. A distributed public ledger of
who I have sold my art to. And, if they sell it, they have
a cryptographically signed certificate proving its
provenance. The seller can sign the certificate with their
private key to say they've sold it to the new owner of a
specific public key. Nifty!
Except… and I hate to bring the art industry into
disrepute… what if I sell a fake and keep the original in
my Underground Vault?
There's no way to permanently attach a digital certificate
to a physical work of art.
Incidentally, this is the problem with all the startups
claiming the blockchain will revolutionise the integrity
of global logistics markets. Sure, you can slap a QR code
on a crate - but nothing stops an unscrupulous middle-man
from replacing or adulterating the contents of the crate.
Let's get back to Verisart's other issue. Proving that I
am the creator or owner of a piece of artwork.
Long story short, I convinced them that I painted the Mona
Lisa.