Digital & Blockchain Certification

Your physical Tagsmart Certificate is unique and secure. However, you might also want a digital version when:

• You want to print a personal copy for filing, or have a copy that you can email to your gallery, artist or collector, without compromising Certificate security;
• A collector or other third party wants to verify the content or status of an existing physical Certificate
• You want the reassurance that there is an auditable, immutable record of the Certificate on a public blockchain
• You want to release an NFT for your physical work and require a provenance key to include in the contract.

A Digital Certificate contains the same artwork data as a physical Certificate. The Digital Certificate is electronically signed using the ESIGN standard and contains information (a hash, for the technically minded) that can be used to verify aspects of the Physical Certificate. A sample Physical Certificate is shown below on the left, with its associated Digital Certificate on the right.

How do I create a Digital Certificate?

You can request a Tagsmart Digital Certificate when ordering a physical Certificate on the platform. Just check the box ‘Add Order/Discount Code ’ and enter the order code DC1 (see example below). For a list of charges relating to Digital and other Certificate options, see here. Note that all blockchain filings are subject to a 'cooling off' period after initial Certification. Your DC will be 'chained' at least five working days after your order. This allows for any requested alterations to Certificates (e.g. the artist issued the wrong edition number) to be made before committing to a public, immutable record. Subsequent alterations require the filing of a correction and the reissue of the Certificate.

If you're one of our Concierge Service members and are using a private portal to issue Certificates, you can request the inclusion of Digital Certificate options in your portal by emailing us at support@tagsmart.com.

How do I receive my Digital Certificate?

For security reasons, all Digital Certificates are emailed to your account email address. 

A copy of the Digital Certificate is uploaded to the artwork's provenance record, in the document store for the associated Certification event. Blockchain transaction IDs are currently stored in the same location. For information on how to view a work's provenance record, see here.

How do I sign a Digital Certificate?

Since you have already signed the associated physical Certificate, you don't need to sign its Digital counterpart. Each Digital Certificate is however electronically signed by the Tagsmart Registrar to confirm that:

• it was issued by Tagsmart (for the technically minded, all Digital Certificates follow the internationally accepted ESIGN standard)
• the Digital Certificate has not been tampered with - ESIGNed documents include strong anti-tampering protection.

To ensure that our signed Digitally Certificates are independently verifiable, we use a third party signing service: this service has no access to your Tagsmart account or personal information.

Can I issue a Digital Certificate instead of a physical Certificate?

One of our guiding principles is that all aspects of provenance for physical works need both physical and digital embodiments. For this reason, we do not currently issue digital-only Certificates. For more about what 'makes us tick', see here.

Can I issue a Digital Certificate for a previously Certified work?

Yes. Currently you'll need to contact the Registrar at registrar@tagsmart.com; we have a process in test for this at the moment, due for release shortly (August 2022).

Can I file my artwork data on other blockchains?

Certainly. As we say in our vision statement, we want to disintermediate everyone - including ourselves! You can currently opt to file your work on the Artory blockchain register, via our Connect Service. For more information, see here.