Blockchain for card tracking

[drcy]

A PR writer for a blockchain company asked to interview me, as an authentication person, for an article about the potential use of blockchain in arts and artifacts. I said I didn't know what was blockchain and he never wrote back

[Sean1125]

There are less advanced systems that can be administrated by a grading company (read 'upgraded security registry') that will, in theory, work better than a blockchain. I've worked with an engineer in the past that was able to set up a system that "verified" holdered cards were the authentic version that was submitted--- the infrastructure changes for a grading company would be significant, but the actual technology, once adopted, could be implemented for between 3 and 10 cents into each slab.

In reality, how many people pass/release their cards on with the PSA or SGC registry? Not many. An email needs to be sent to Cosetta or to SGC customer support to release the item and move it along properly. Being that a blockchain is permanent and cannot be changed without the person who owned that item submitting it for update there would be no opportunity for administration-- in perfect concept, this works. In reality, I don't feel it will work because even a few people not transferring ownership would cause significant problems and I tend to think a larger percent than a few people will forget or otherwise not be able to transfer ownership. What happens if a card hits the auction block twice or a dealer doesn't register it or, or, or, or, or any of the unlimited situations that would lead to the blockchain not being properly updated.

Good luck with whatever you are planning.

S

[bensie]

It's a neat idea for sure. Fwiw, I wrote some code a while back that scraped auction sites so that I could track the provenance of cards I was interested in. It's fun to watch cards change hands and see who made prudent investments vs those who lost money.

That exercise really opened my eyes to just how inefficient the market is for cards.