Unique.One Integrates FIO NFT Signatures to Help Artists Prevent Forgery & Protect Permanence

Over the last couple of years, we have seen NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) move from a niche market to a massive influx of new creators and collectors, along with the development of many exciting new use cases and utilities for NFTs outside of a collectible file alone. As many famous artists, musicians, and celebrities jump into the NFT creation mix, individual creators have also been able to take total control of their craft by creating unique NFTs for their followers and communities.

NFTs can sell for thousands, even millions, of dollars — a hefty but increasingly common price point in this rapidly expanding space. But also rapidly expanding is the growing problem of NFT forgeries; how can one purchasing NFTs ensure they are getting an authentic creation if they are not buying it directly from an artist or creator they know to be authentic?

As we’ve recently seen with The NFT Bay, NFT fraud is too easy: a scammer can steal NFT content (images, videos, music, or any other file) with a simple right click, mint the content into an NFT, and sell to unsuspecting buyers with fraudulent claims that the NFT was created by a specific person or brand. Verifying NFT authenticity has been historically difficult given the anonymity (and complexity) of public wallet addresses, and while verification programs built into NFT marketplaces are a step in the right direction, they have their own challenges: time to verification is lengthy for the artist, and verification only authenticates NFTs stored custodially on that specific platform.

Enter: FIO NFT Signatures on Unique.One — a decentralized solution that authenticates NFTs created on any chain by proving authorship, protecting NFT content permanence, securing verification throughout the entire chain of custody, and providing an easy way for both NFT creators to immediately authenticate their work during the minting process and NFT collectors to authenticate NFTs at any point during the sale or re-sale process.

About FIO NFT Signatures

FIO NFT Signatures are a decentralized, blockchain-based solution built to protect NFTs created on any blockchain. As a feature of the FIO Protocol, FIO NFT Signatures can be integrated into any NFT marketplace or platform. This integration enables NFT creators to sign their NFTs during the minting process using their unique, customizable FIO Crypto Handle — a human-readable address (e.g. username@domain) that replaces long-string public wallet addresses. NFT creators can also sign their NFTs off-marketplace — even retroactively — using the FIO Dashboard.

FIO Crypto Handles are NFTs unto themselves secured by private keys on the FIO blockchain and, by design, cannot be duplicated or forged. Here’s an example of how it works:

If Leonardo da Vinci was alive today and wanted to release an NFT collection, he could claim the FIO Crypto Handle leonardo@davinci in the FIO Dashboard (or in any wallet or exchange that has integrated FIO Domains) and use this FIO Crypto Handle to sign his NFTs. He could then publicize his FIO Crypto Handle to his audience and fans — across his social media profiles, on his website, within his newsletter, on his NFT marketplace gallery pages themselves, etc. — letting everyone know that he will sign all of his NFTs with his FIO Crypto Handle leonardo@davinci, and that any NFT not signed with leonardo@davinici (no matter how authenticate it might appear) is a forgery.

During the minting process on Unique.One (or any NFT platform that’s integrated FIO NFT Signatures), da Vinci could then easily sign his NFTs with his leonardo@davinci FIO Crypto Handle, as FIO NFT Signatures are seamlessly built into the minting process as the final step of NFT creation. If da Vinci hadn’t already created his FIO Crypto Handle before beginning the minting process, he would have the option to create one during this final signature step.

Finally — and something many NFT collectors do not realize — purchasing an NFT is not the direct purchase of NFT content (images, videos, music, or any other files associated with an NFT); instead, it’s a purchase of the right to download specific content via a URL. This URL directs the NFT owner the content associated with the NFT they purchased, but that content is not actually stored on the blockchain. In most cases, this content is stored on a web server and, if that content is ever deleted or changed, the owner has no way to prove the actual content originally associated with the NFT they purchased.

With FIO NFT Signatures, a cryptographic hash of this off-chain content is written immutably to the FIO blockchain, which protects the permanence of NFT content otherwise stored off-chain. This secures the value of not only the NFT, but the content contained within the NFT. Buyers can easily authenticate the FIO NFT Signature associated with an NFT and the NFT content either directly in the Unique.One platform, or using the (soon-to-be-released) FIO NFT Signature Validator.

Check out the demo video below to see firsthand just how easy it is to sign and protect NFTs using FIO NFT Signatures on Unique.One!

About Unique.One

Unique.One is a decentralized, non-profit platform that is owned and managed by the digital arts community. Unique.One allows collectors and creators to buy, sell, and mint NFTs with the option to use marketplaces on Ethereum, Polygon, Binance Smart Chain, and xDai chains. The Unique.One team came together to build the platform with the core goal of building a truly decentralized, non-profit, zero-net fee NFT marketplace. According to the Unique.One website, Unique wants to be the first truly community-run art marketplace and believes that this diversity will make it truly unique — a one of a kind project in the world. Every purchase transaction on Unique.One incurs a 1% transaction fee that is used to purchase $RARE, the governance token of the platform, and then distributed to all token holders. Unique.One gives everyone equal opportunity to mint, sell, and buy on the platform and now, with the integration of FIO NFT signatures, both creators and collectors alike can add an extra layer of protection to their NFTs.

About FIO:

FIO, the Foundation for Interwallet Operability, is a decentralized consortium of blockchain organizations and community members supporting the ongoing development, integration, and promotion of the FIO Protocol. The protocol is an open-source, decentralized usability layer solution that works across all blockchains, and uses human-readable Crypto Handles to replace the complexity, risk, and inconvenience that comes with blockchain-based transactions using public addresses.