Glossary
Certificate of authenticity
A signed, verifiable snapshot of a work's attribution and history at a point in time.
A certificate of authenticity (COA) states who made a work and confirms it is genuine. Traditionally it is a letter on gallery paper — easy to lose, easy to forge, and impossible to check without contacting whoever issued it.
An Attesian certificate is different: it is cryptographically signed, carries its own QR code, and can be verified by anyone in seconds. Scanning it recomputes the certificate's fingerprint and checks the signature against Attesian's published key — so a stranger can confirm the work, the artist, and the history without an account and without taking anyone's word for it.