BlockMark Registry offers some optional (currently-beta) blockchain features.
The platform was originally conceived on the idea that blockchain technology is well suited to certificate security and management. However, over the years it has become clear that blockchain technology is still immature with volatile costs, unreliable speeds and clunky user-interfaces. This, coupled with mixed news coverage and the changing regulatory landscape for cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), has meant we have been cautious in developing and rolling out blockchain technology on BlockMark Registry.
Also, in many ways we were ahead of the curve, as customers that we consulted were either cautious about using blockchain or felt it was an unnecessary complication which might lead to confusion.
Despite these issues, we remain optimistic that blockchain technology could be beneficial to the platform's functionality, so we are still researching and developing features that we will gradually (re-)introduce.
Blockchain technology is based on cryptographically-secured distributed ledgers. This can be thought of as multiple copies of a secure database located in different locations around the globe. A number of different variants exist, and the technology continues to evolve rapidly.
Blockchains are a good way to manage tokens (like money) and to solve the double-spend problem where the same digital money can be spent by more than one recipient if some kind of control mechanism is not in place. Bitcoin is a famous example, running on an open-source blockchain protocol, that has stood the test of time and remains cryptographically secure despite some high profile hacks off-chain involving digital exchanges.
Another blockchain is Ethereum which has developed to support distributed code often called smart contracts. This added functionality has enabled many other fungible and non-fungible tokens to be created and transacted. This blockchain also promises to use less energy than the traditional approach of solving energy-intensive mathematical problems (proof of work) to provide the information security.
Our first approach to using blockchain technology on our platform was to simply create a mathematical hash of the certificate data and write this to a block.
This is an effective way of timestamping and recording a certificate in such a way that it can't be changed or tampered with by the issuer, recipient or us. As long as at least one party retains a copy of the original, the hash acts as a fingerprint that can be regenerated and compared to the original hash. If there is a match, it means the certificate data is still as issued. If there is a difference, it means something has been changed.
The advantage of this method is that the hash itself can't (currently) be reversed to derive the certificate data, so this keeps the information private on the blockchain. It is also an efficient way to 'notarise' a certificate and in effect lodge it with a third party as an independent record.
We implemented this feature to makes use of a now depreciated service that integrated with the bitcoin blockchain. Although currently unavailable, we are working to re-introduce a certificate hashing function on a mainstream blockchain service.
NFTs have become popular as unique placeholders for digital art. Basically they are a form of digital certificate of ownership, and so have many synergies with our platform.
Therefore, we have added some beta-test NFT functionality for the certification of things.
In this case it is possible to create a digital twin (NFT) of an item and then link this to a digital certificate on our platform. If the NFT changes hand through a supply chain by being transferred to a new holder in a blockchain supported digital wallet (like MetaMask), the certificates can be transferred as well.
Currently the system makes use of a now deprecated Ethereum test network, but we do plan to migrate this service to a mainstream blockchain service in the future.