What are we really solving?

We are not the first to use RFIDs and NFTs. There are several companies that already use traditional transponders, for example NFC, to tag paintings, claiming to guarantee in this way the artwork itself and to enable its tokenization. Typically they calculate the hash code of the NFT from the digitized version of the painting. This poses many problems that non-technical people are unaware of:

• A single transponder is much better than a barcode or a QR code, but it is not an anti-counterfeiting system per se. Its radio frequency signal can be decoded, processed and reproduced.

• How to make sure that the transponder cannot be removed from the work.

• If that single transponder fails for any reason there is no backup.

• By using the digitized version of the painting to calculate the hash code to be engraved in the heart of the NFT in blockchain, this represents no more than the ownership of the digital version of the artwork. If the artwork is born digital, everything is fine, as for classic NFTs. In the case of a physical painting, for example, the colors interact with oxygen and light and change a little. If after some years the artwork is sold and the buyer wants to scan it again to check if the hash code corresponds to the original registered in the NFT, it is almost certain that this comparison will fail.

The Smart Dust solves all of these problems at once, because:

• It is composed of many randomly dispersed nano tags, which store topological relationships with the others in an encrypted way. Eventually they can also store other information, such as color data corresponding to their position, or even the artist's DNA. Such a complicated scheme is practically impossible to reproduce.

• The small size of its grains allow its dispersion in the colors, inside the canvas or paper, inside the rubber fusion of the sole of a sneaker, in the fusible interlinings used in the fashion industry, almost in every product. This dispersion cannot be removed unless the product is destroyed. It is its DNA.

• The characteristics of the digital DNA code make Smart Dust fault tolerant. Up to 25% of the grains can break without affecting the consistency of the digital DNA.

• The hash code written in the NFT is not derived from the characteristics of the artwork, such as its colors or its shape, but from its digital DNA written in the Smart Dust integrated within it. It does not change over time, it cannot be separated from the artwork, it is easily verifiable with a reader and it is resistant to errors. Anyone at any time can verify that the NFT corresponds to physical work and vice versa. Smart Dust is the natural extension of the blockchain into the physical world.