Provenance & certificates
What is a certificate of attestation?
An Attesté certificate is a digital record that attests to an artwork's identity and history. Each certificate carries a cryptographic integrity hash (SHA-256) — if anything in the certificate were altered, the hash would no longer match, so tampering is detectable. Certificate hashes are additionally anchored to the Bitcoin blockchain via OpenTimestamps, which proves the certificate existed at a given point in time without publishing any of its contents.
Unlimited certificates are included from the Collector tier up; artists issue source certificates from their artist plan.
Verifying a certificate
Anyone can verify a certificate — no account needed:
- QR code: every certificate has a QR code that opens a public verification view showing the certificate's status and integrity check.
- NFC tag: if the artwork carries an Attesté NFC tag, tapping a phone against it opens the same verification — see NFC tags.
The public view shows only what the certificate holder chose to make verifiable — not your private collection data.
Talking Provenance
Talking Provenance (the Curator's Commentary) lets you record spoken provenance — the story of a work in your own voice, guided by the AI Companion. Recordings become permanent, integrity-hashed artefacts attached to the artwork, and travel with it if it is transferred. Recordings are capped at 4 minutes each.
- Recording is available on Premium and Patron collector plans, Artist Professional and Represented plans, and Gallery Professional and Enterprise plans.
- Voice recording asks for its own consent the first time you use it — see the voice-data section of Your account & your data.
A note on AI valuations
Where the app shows AI-generated price or valuation context, it is explicitly experimental: clearly labelled, collapsed by default, and never included in your portfolio totals. Provenance and authenticity records are sacred; speculative numbers are kept out of them.
Questions?
Email info@atteste.art.