Eric S. Shi, 31-December-2021
Q1: What is the ES&AG Blockchain Header system?
A1: ES&AG Blockchain Header (ES&AG BH) system is an innovation from the ES&AG AI Art Studio, arguably the first of its kind in the market. It is a slimmer and lighter version of the common types of the public blockchain system. It enables the underlying assets (e.g., artworks) to be traded online, enjoying the same type of cryptographic protection over the intellectual property right(s) that a public blockchain can offer, yet keeping clear of the undesirable instability of the cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ether, and etc.) used to mediate the online trading on the common type of public blockchains. In other words, ES&AG BH supports fiat currencies (e.g., USD).
The ES&AG BH initiates a blockchain for its user(s) to provide an encrypted protection layer over the intellectual property right(s). The ES&AG BH typically presents itself in a 3-block format. As further transactions of the entitlement of the underlying asset(s) continue, new blocks (block-4, block-5 and etc.) can be added to extend the blockchain. However, since these further transactions are commercial activities between buyers and sellers, other than ES&AG AI Art Studio, whether or not they should adhere to the means of online trading, to the blockchain technology, and/or to blockchain initiated by the ES&AG BH are completely at the discretion of the buyers and sellers involved.
Q2: What is an ES&AG Blockchain Header constituted of?
A2: An ES&AG BH typically presents itself as a header segment containing the first three blocks of a blockchain. This 3-block segment is made of the following three blocks: a genesis block (block-1) to initiate a blockchain, a follow-up block (block-2) to describe the birth details of the underlying artwork from the ES&AG AI Art Studio, and a transaction block (block-3) to describe the sale of the artwork from the ES&AG AI Art Studio to the artwork buyer.
As the value of the artwork appreciates over time, the artwork buyer can use the ES&AG BH certificate to protect his/her rightful earning (against possible erosion or dilution of such earning caused by unauthorized copies/reprints/reproductions and etc.).
When it comes to the time for resale of the artwork, the artwork buyer can use the ES&AG BH certificate to demonstrate that he/she is the genuine owner of the underlying artwork (against various types of possible counterfeited/falsified goods and imitations in the market).
Q3: What are the key differences between the ES&AG Blockchain Header and a public blockchain?
A3: Compared to a public blockchain, the ES&AG BH can provide the needed protection over intellectual property right(s) of the underlying asset owner(s) (e.g., the artwork owner(s)) without broadcasting the related financial transaction details to millions of computers (and the people behind the computers). This makes it particularly suited to the exclusive nature of transactions of big-ticket artworks. In short, the ES&AG BH offers to protect the intellectual property right(s) and to preserve the privacy of its artwork owner simultaneously, whereas a common public blockchain can only deliver the former half. With the ES&AG BH, while the artwork can continue to enjoy its desirable public visibility, the financial transaction details can be kept discreet.
On the one hand, the normal online trading systems use fiat currencies but offer little protection against counterfeiting and piracy. On the other hand, the online trading systems in crypto-markets (e.g., those based on normal blockchains) provide protection against counterfeiting and piracy yet necessitate the use of unstable cryptocurrencies.
The ES&AG BH system combines the merits of these two. It enables online trading to be carried out with fiat currencies (e.g., USD) and offers top-notch cryptographic protection over asset entitlement and associated benefit entitlement (e.g., the capital gain achieved over time of the underlying asset(s)) of the genuine owner(s).
The top-notch cryptographic protection is achieved via the multi-hashed encryption deployed by the ES&AG BH system. Most of the public blockchains are single-hashed, meaning that the content immutability is cryptographically protected by a single hash code. Comparatively, being multi-hashed means that the contents (describing the certain features of the artwork, documenting certain unique aspects of the genuine seller and buyer of the artwork) are cryptographically fragmented, protected by hash codes, and then put together in steps with each of the steps sealed by independently generated hash codes again. This not only provides enhanced content immutability (forward on the blockchain) but also provides enhanced protection again reverse engineering and cryptographic falsification.
The lightness and agility of the ES&AG BH system come from its design that has excluded heavy software modules meant to support payment systems, mining activities, gas demand-supply forecasting, gas charging, and provision for possible forking; whereas these are practically inseparable from most of the standard public blockchains.
Q4: How good is the cryptographic protection provided by an ES&AG Blockchain Header?
A4: An estimation of the accuracy of orders of magnitude can be performed as follows. Taking a single-hash function (SHA-256, widely used in many public blockchains) as an example, for any hash code generated by the SHA-256 function, the input (i.e., the content to be protected by the hash) can be a string of up to 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 bits. In the binary world, this means that there are 218,446,744,073,709,551,616-1 possible inputs for a reverse engineer to guess. Suppose for the super brain of the reverse engineer can make 1,000,000 guesses per second and remember all of them correctly, it will take 585,000 years (i.e., 5.85x105 years) to go through all of the 218,446,744,073,709,551,616-1 possibilities.
Suppose the multi-hash deployed by an ES&AG BH is made of 3 layers of single-hash, then it will take at least 2x1015 years for the super brain to go through all the possibilities. Even if the reverse engineer is extremely lucky, only needing to go through the first 10% of the possibilities before hitting the correct answer, for each of the consecutively 3 hashes, the super brain still needs more than 2x1012 years to figure out the correct answer, which is more than 100 times longer than the life-span of our universe (which is about 13 billion years, i.e., 1.3x1010 years).
Q5: How can the ES&AG Blockchain Header system help me as an artwork buyer?
A5: This question is analogous to asking what is the advantage of owning a nonfungible token (NFT) vs. owning a physical artwork. Let's use the following hypothetical case to reveal the pros and cons.
Suppose that Mr. A purchased the Mona Lisa in the form of an NFT at a price of X million Bitcoins from the Louvre Museum at 13:21 on December 28, 2021. From that point onwards, the physical location of the oil painting becomes separated from its ownership. Its owner is Mr. A., regardless of whether the actual painting is displayed inside the Louvre Museum in Paris or inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, or anywhere else.
Neither Mr. A has to go through the trouble of moving the Mona Lisa from the Louvre Museum to his private premises, nor he has to renovate his private premises to incorporate the special techniques providing protection against aging of the invaluable art, nor does he have to strengthen the anti-theft facilities around the painting. If he wants to show off a bit in front of his friends, he only has to mention casually: By the way, the Mona Lisa on display at the Louvre in Paris is mine. He no longer needs to bring his friends to his private premises to see the art. Everyone can see it online with a click of a mouse.
Once an asset (e.g., a cultural relic) becomes an NFT, the financial value of owning the asset (e.g., as a means of investment) becomes separated from its use-value (e.g., the cultural and educational values of exhibiting the cultural relic in museums). In the Mona Lisa case here, the financial value, derivable from the appreciation of the oil painting, belongs to Mr. A, which is protected by the blockchain technology behind the NFT. Because of this separation, it renders all theft activities targeting the physical oil painting valueless and worthless. A theft can steal the art, but there will be no market for the theft to sell the art. No one of adequate sanity would pay a great deal of money to buy the Mona Lisa from anyone other than Mr. A (or his representative) now that it is publicly known that the legitimate owner of the oil painting is Mr. A.
To this end, the ES&AG BH certification system is designed to transform the artwork into a de facto NFT without exposing the buyers to the unnecessary instability of the value of cryptocurrencies and without having the buyers go through the lengthy process of floating an NFT and paying mint charges himself (or herself). This ES&AG BH certification service is offered by the ES&AG AI Art Studio for free to its customers.
The multi-hash design of the encryption mechanism deployed by the ES&AG BH certificates promises stronger protection than the single-hash protection provided by most of the public blockchains in the market in terms of content immutability covering certification of the genuineness of the artwork, title transfer details, and etc.
Q6: What should I do once I have my ES&AG Blockchain Header certificate?
A6: You are advised to put the certificate in place safe and secure. An ES&AG BH certificate is only issued to the buyer of the artwork from the ES&AG AI Art Studio, one issuance of one copy of the certificate per artwork. No re-issuance is possible.
You probably do not need to touch the certificate until you are ready to resell the artwork or until you have found that your lawful entitlement to the financial gain has been infringed by some unlawful individual(s). In either case, the certificate is proof of your entitlement.
The following few questions and answers may provide some bits of advice on the course of action when you encounter any one of the above-mentioned situations.
Q7: What is an ES&AG ACC?
A7: An ES&AG ACC is an encrypted string of alphanumerical characters. It is generated as part of block-3 of the EH&AG BH and printed on the artwork (e.g., at the bottom of a painting). For any artwork from the ES&AG AI Art Studio, a unique ES&AG ACC and the associated ES&AG BH certificate work as a pair of twins to protect you. They carry encrypted matching messages (on the artwork, the seller, the buyer, and etc.).
Both the ES&AG ACC and the EH&AG BH certificate are very difficult to break and/or to reverse engineering. The ES&AG ACC goes to the artwork (the underlying asset), the ES&AG BH certificate goes to the buyer of the artwork (the owner of the underlying asset).
They work together like a lock and key to protect the lawful right of the genuine owner of the artwork.
Q8: How do I demonstrate that I am reselling a genuine artwork from the ES&AG AI Art Studio?
A8: If you are reselling an artwork that you bought from the ES&AG AI Art Studio, make use of your ES&AG BH certificate. The generic format of an ES&AG BH certificate is given below in italic fonts. The contents of a few lines, among other things (as replaced by dashed lines here for protection), are mocked up here for illustration purposes:
ES&AG Blockchain Header Certificate for the ABCDEFG
…………..
…………..
The buyer of this artwork: John S. Williams. The buyer's secret code: protected.
…………..
…………..
The ACC code issued on the underlying artwork: 355c1064b1c0776a414033f2aa78917f41375da0d5eea46352b98bf5fdacc245
………….
………….
The hash code for the current block: ['19604ced207d9f7dd4f63399deb69bea54f9a7332aa736ba245d4880307c8b61']
The artwork title (shown as ABCDEFG here) listed in the first line of the certificate should match that of the artwork which you are about to sell. The buyer's name printed on the certificate (i.e., John S. Williams here) should match your name. The ACC code shown on the certificate should also match that printed near the bottom of the artwork which you are about to sell. If you have not shared the content of the ES&AG BH certificate with anyone prior to your resale, no one else should have had access to all pieces of information listed on your certificate, especially to the information replaced by the dashed lines above. It is extremely unlikely for anyone to be able to guess the hash codes (including the one shown in the last line of the certificate and those covered up by the dashed lines in the above example).
In addition, you may also want to take the steps advised in A9 to take advantage of another free service from the ES&AG AI Art Studio (see the A9 below).
Q9: How do I demonstrate that I am the genuine owner of an artwork from the ES&AG AI Art Studio?
A9: If you incidentally shared your certificate with other people, then there are many ways that unlawful individuals can cut and paste and alter the content printed on the certificate paper and engage in unlawful activities without your knowledge. If you suspect that the protection of your paper certificate may not be tight enough, you can make use of another free service offered by the ES&AG AI Art Studio: PDF for verification.
To activate this "PDF for verification" process, you should raise an "email verification request" by emailing the ES&AG AI Art Studio 2-3 days prior to your resale. If you are one of the current owners of the artwork(s) from the ES&AG AI Art Studio (per the ES&AG AI Art Studio internal records), you will get an email reply with a password protected PDF file as an attachment (c.f. A9_Note_1 below) within 1-2 days of your email verification request.
The content of the PDF file will reveal/confirm the name of the true buyer of the artwork. Since the PDF file can be opened only with the "buyer's secret code" and you are the only person in the world who has the matching pair of the "buyer's secret code" (c.f. A9_Note_2 below) and the buyer's name (as printed in the line "The buyer of this artwork:" on the ES&AG BH certificate), you can use the "buyer's secret code" to open the PDF file, in front of your buyer, to prove that you indeed purchased the artwork and became its true owner. So, for all genuine owners of the artworks from the ES&AG AI Art Studio, it is important to remember "the buyer's secret code", or at least to keep it somewhere safe and secure.
A9_Note_1: The PDF format is purposely chosen over other formats (e.g., txt and doc) to ensure a broad document content presentation reliability since the PDF is known as the best format capable of preserving the content immutability across different operating systems, software, and hardware.
A9_Note_2: The "buyer's secret code" needed to open the PDF file is the same as you provided to the ES&AG AI Art Studio when you purchased the artwork. If you have never requested an ES&AG BH certificate or if you declined to provide the "buyer's secret code" when you requested an ES&AG BH certificate, you will not be able to enjoy this free service (i.e., PDF for verification) from the ES&AG AI Art Studio.
Q10: If I want to buy a resale artwork from an individual, how do I know that I am looking at genuine artwork from the ES&AG AI Art Studio?
A10: Firstly, you look for the ACC (typically shown in the form of a string of alphanumerical characters, e.g., printed at the bottom of the painting). If no ACC is printed on the artwork, it is not genuine artwork (single piece) from the ES&AG AI Art Studio. If you see two identical artworks with identical ACC, at least one of them is not genuine. If you see two identical artworks with different ACC, at least one of them is not genuine. This simple inspection can save you from most of the trouble of dealing with counterfeited pieces generated from unauthorized downloading, reprinting, and reproduction.
If you have not found anything suspicious up to this point, then you may request the individual who is reselling you the artwork to show you the ES&AG BH certificate. To seek further confirmation, you may also want to take the steps described in A8 and the steps described in A9.
Q11: When is an ES&AG BH certificate generated?
A11: An ES&AG BH certificate is typically generated and emailed to the buyer within 24 hours from the completion of the purchase transaction if the artwork is online purchased directly from the ES&AG AI Art Studio and if the buyer raised a written request via email requesting an ES&AG BH certificate to be generated. In the requesting email, the buyer should supply ES&AG AI Art Studio with his/her name and a "the buyer's secret code". Ideally, the name is consistent with that shown on the buyer's ID and the "the buyer's secret code" has a clear meaning to the buyer yet is difficult for other people to guess. Both of these are for the buyer's best protection. However, none of them is compulsory.
Although the ES&AG BH certification service is a free service, it has not been made an automatic sub-step of the sales transaction. It is so designed to accommodate the possibility that some buyers may not wish to have an ES&AG BH certificate issued to them.
It is important to point out that the ES&AG AI Art Studio will no longer be able to issue an ES&AG BH certificate once the time window is missed (i.e., once the block-1, block-2, and block-3 of the ES&AG BH are wrapped and sealed; this typically will happen within 24 hours from the completion of the sales transaction), due to the cryptographic mechanism used to encrypt the ES&AG BH.
Q12: May I obtain an ES&AG BH certificate if I buy a piece of ES&AG AI Art Studio artwork from an art dealer?
A12: In principle, yes. Currently, some of the sales of artworks are managed by online art dealers such as Art Show International, Artsy, and Artnet. In the future, the number of art dealers may increase. It is not clear, up to the point when this article is written, whether and how the art dealers would like the unique service of the ES&AG BH certification (currently applicable only to the artworks from ES&AG AI Art Studio) to be incorporated into their respective online sale systems which cover much broader ranges of artworks from a huge number of galleries and artists around the globe. The ES&AG AI Art Studio is prepared to work with indirect customers in a case-by-case manner. Please send your email to esandag.ai.art.studio@gmail.com, if you need help from the ES&AG AI Art Studio.
Q13: What should I do if I want to request an ES&AG BH certificate to be issued to me?
A13: As described in A12, you should raise a written request via email requesting an ES&AG BH certificate to be generated for the artwork you have purchased and supplying ES&AG AI Art Studio with the buyer's name and a "the buyer's secret code".
Q14: If I want to resell an artwork, can an ES&AG BH certificate be issued to my buyer?
A14: The ES&AG BH certificate is currently designed to be issued at the end of block-3. For block-4, block-5, block-6, and beyond, since the ES&AG AI Art Studio is no longer a party involved in the buy-sale transaction, the transaction can no longer trigger the ES&AG BH certification process automatically.
However, if you are a current owner of an artwork from the ES&AG AI Art Studio and you are convinced that an ES&AG BH certificate for your buyer (i.e., for a buyer in transaction block-4 or beyond) can help you to sell the artwork, we would like to help. We believe that helping the existing buyers of the ES&AG AI Art Studio artworks to make a profit is the best way to promote sales of the ES&AG AI Art Studio artworks.
So, we are prepared to trigger the ES&AG BH certification process for you manually.
In order for us to help you, we need you to provide us with the following:
An email raising the request for issuing an ES&AG BH certificate to your buyer. In the email, please state your artwork title, ACC, your name, and the "hash code for the current block" as shown on your ES&AG BH certificate. In addition, please provide us with your "the buyer's secret code". Only when these 5 pieces of information all match with our internal record can we be sure that you are indeed the genuine owner of the artwork, and consequently, we will manually trigger the ES&AG BH certification process for you.
In the email request for issuing an ES&AG BH certificate to your buyer, please provide us with the email address of your buyer, his/her name, and his/her "the buyer's secret code". The email address will be used to send the new ES&AG BH certificate. The name and the "the buyer's secret code" will be incorporated into the new ES&AG BH certificate as part of the encrypted content.
After the certificate is emailed out, the internal records at the ES&AG AI Art Studio will be updated accordingly.
Q15: How different is the protection of an ES&AG Blockchain Header certificate from that of a password?
A15: Setting up a password to protect an asset is analogous to building a fence to prevent thieves from unlawful possession of the asset. Although a fence can be built very high, so long as the incentive for gaining access to the asset remains, the efficacy of the fence is constantly challenged by the possibilities for the thieves to invent ways to break the fence or to find ladders to climb over the fence or to dig a tunnel underneath the fence, or even to airlift the asset.
In addition, a password (like a fence) may prevent a thief from having access to the asset; it may also prevent genuine visitors from having access to (e.g., to see or to see properly) the asset. So, the protection of the ownership correlates negatively with the publicity of the asset.
The ES&AG Blockchain Header system takes a very different approach to the problem. It aims at separating monetary value (of ownership) and use-value of an asset. It protects the separated ownership, rendering stealing (or possessing) of the physical asset worthless, as illustrated in A5 aforementioned. In addition, since the publicity of the underlying asset is decoupled from the ownership protection, the ES&AG Blockchain Header system encourages the owners to promote their artworks as much as they can. In fact, it is believed that publicity of the artwork correlates positively with ownership protection. Since the more broadly the ownership is known, the less incentive is there for unlawful activities such as counterfeiting and falsification.
The deep logic behind the ES&AG Blockchain Header won't work (at least for now) for fungible valuables such as diamonds, common pieces of jewelry, gold coins, silver bars, and paper money where monetary value and use-value are inseparable. However, it can work very well for nonfungible valuables such as arts, antiques, and cultural relics (especially those museum pieces). It also points out a new direction for future crime prevention.
Commenti