Quote from: cryptographix on October 08, 2015, 01:36:55 AM

how can it work for things that are 3D printed if you cant tell them apart because it means they are identical?

In the future when you order an item from a vendor such as a cup or a toy for example it seems sensible to envision a scenario where rather than have the vendor mail it to you or send it by drone they instead send the blueprint to your 3D printer which produces the item instantly for you at home or maybe they print the item for you themselves and then physically send it but in either case how can you know that you purchased the item from the producer in question and not someone who ordered an item themselves, intercepted the blueprint or scanned the product which was delivered to them and just sold you a clone? (this is a huge problem in the pharmaceutical industry)

Cryptoproof solves this by providing a common place where vendors can register master cryptographic keys and then brand each item with a unique subkey which cryptoproof can verify so that the consumer can know if the product originates from the producer that they think it does (by seeing if a verified account is associated with it) and if there is more than one copy of that item in existence (by seeing if/how many times that key has been submitted in the past).

Using Bitcoin keys for this purpose adds an extra dimension to the scenario because, for instance, value can be transmitted to and from these keys which allows not only for verification but also can be used to keep an immutable record showing how much was paid for the item, who paid it and when the transaction took place.