Bitcoin Forum

I know that there's something called "Proof of Existence" where I can simply verify the ownership of documents and other important stuff using the Blockchain itself. At least, this works with digital data where I can obtain a unique hash from it and verify its authenticity on the Blockchain. But what if I want to prove I'm the sole owner of a tangible (physical) item? How can I exactly achieve this? There's no unique identifier (like a UPC barcode) that I can use to timestamp it on the Blockchain in order for me to prove that I'm the owner of a tangible item. I've seen many items of the same kind with the same barcode on a retail store. This way, it'll be difficult for me to prove authenticity on the Blockchain (no uniqueness).

If you happen to know of a way to prove the ownership of tangible (physical) items on the Blockchain, please let me know. I want to do this on both BTC and ETH blockchains, although it's often best to do this with BTC due to its immutable properties. Any suggestions or recommendations will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. :)

As soon as you want to label real physical objects into the virtual world, you need an Oracle. Find it and solve your question.

The topic is very interesting in my opinion. Strange, it turns out that a way has already been found to transfer physical financial assets to virtual ones and vice versa, but there is still no marker for physical objects. This is not surprising because physical financial assets are initially virtually recognized. When virtually physical objects are also recognized, everything will be decided.

I have also encountered blockchain projects which have partnerships with companies to counter counterfeit products. I cannot understand how this is being done. To my mind, the only way to verify whether a certain object is genuine or not is to check it physically.

I'd be following this thread. If I am not mistaken, there were already projects which uses blockchain to make sure products such as luxury apparels and other items, drugs, etc are verifiable through blockchain whether they are genuine or not. 

I think it'll be quite challenging to be able to track ownership of physical items on the Blockchain, since there's no unique identifier that we can use to link the item to its original owner. As far as I know, UPC barcodes are the same when it comes to an specific item of choice. One cannot prove ownership of a physical/tangible item this way. The only way to achieve this would be to implement some sort of microchip inside the item with its own unique identifier to be able to generate a hash from that and prove its ownership on the Blockchain. Until that time comes, only intangible items (digital) can be verified on-chain.

Considering that most businesses, governments, and central banks are interested in Blockchain technology, we might be able to see this become a reality sometime in the future. An implant would contain all of your utmost sensitive financial, personal, and medical information. Supply chains can be tracked via the use of Blockchain technology as each physical item will possess a unique hash that could be easily linked with its owner. Initially, businesses and merchants will be the owners of the merchandise they're selling. Once the physical item is sold, ownership is automatically transferred to the buyer all through the Blockchain. It's the only thing I can think of since the space is mostly focused on intangible items. My guess is that physical items will be "tokenized" in the future in order to prove their ownership on-chain. Just my opinion :)

I think that I've seen a couple these in the market but really no proof that its already being used by companies. What stood out from me is NEM 's new open-source blockchain platform Symbol (https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200110005074/en/NEM-Announces-Public-Testnet-Launch-Introduces-New) that is being used by a wine and cbd company to ensure supply chain, traceability in their respective industries, and avoid fraud. I also think that they're aiming for companies to register physical items into their blockchain, so this is something that you may wanna take a look at.