TL;DR: A certificate of authenticity is a document that identifies one specific item and states that it is genuine: what the object is, who made or issued it and, for editions, which number it carries. When you sell the item, the certificate goes to the buyer with it. A TRUE Original certificate of authenticity changes hands online: the seller starts the transfer from a personal link, the buyer confirms by email, and a new certificate in the buyer's name opens at the old links, checkable by anyone in TRUE Verify.
A certificate of authenticity is a document that identifies one specific item and states that the item is genuine. It names the maker, artist or brand that stands behind the claim, describes the object, and often carries a signature, a date and a serial or edition number. Watches, jewellery, paintings, signed prints and collectibles are the usual cases. The same name is used for the label on boxed software, which Microsoft describes as a label "used on the outside of retail boxed software"; a certificate of authenticity for a watch, a painting or a collectible is a different document, tied to one object.
The certificate is worth as much as a stranger's ability to check it. Paper can be torn, lost or separated from the object, and a sheet of paper cannot tell a buyer who issued it. A TRUE Original certificate of authenticity is a TRUE document instead. It opens at a link on the issuer's own domain, carries a fingerprint anchored on a public blockchain, and can be reached from a QR code on a tag, a box or the back of a canvas. TRUE Original builds it for one job: “For objects and products, where the proof has to survive a change of owner.”
A certificate of authenticity matters in a sale because the buyer pays for an object they can trust, and the certificate is the proof that passes from seller to buyer with it. According to the OECD and EUIPO report Mapping Global Trade in Fakes 2025, global trade in counterfeit goods was valued at about USD 467 billion in 2021, 2.3 percent of global imports.
Resale is where that proof gets tested. A watch sold with its original box and papers, the paperwork equivalent of a TRUE certificate, can fetch 20 to 30 percent more than the same watch without them, according to provenance research from Kevin Francis Design. Resale itself has become a market in its own right: the secondhand luxury goods sector was valued at roughly 40 billion US dollars in 2025 and continues to grow faster than sales of new luxury goods, per IMARC Group's 2025 market report. IMARC Group expects USD 83.9 billion by 2034. A secondhand buyer has two questions. Is the object real, and is the seller the person entitled to sell it?
The certificate of authenticity answers the first. Provenance, the record of who has owned the object and in what order, answers the second, and a certificate that moves with each sale is how that record gets built. A TRUE Original certificate of authenticity names the current owner, because each transfer puts the buyer's name on a new certificate only after the buyer has confirmed it.
You transfer a certificate of authenticity by handing the proof to the buyer together with the item. A paper certificate goes in the box with the object, the original and not a copy. KRO, the Swedish artists' organisation, writes in its 2022 guide to certificates of authenticity that the certificate is usually one of the first documents handed to the buyer with the work, and that it then follows the work in future sales. A TRUE Original certificate of authenticity is transferred online, started by the seller from the personal link in the email sent when the certificate was issued.
That personal link is what identifies the seller as the owner. A verification link shared with someone else will not open the transfer.
The seller's part ends there. The rest belongs to the buyer.
After the seller submits the transfer, the buyer receives an email with a button to confirm it. Nothing changes until the buyer clicks. Until then the certificate of authenticity still belongs to the seller.
Once the buyer confirms, TRUE Original creates a new certificate in the buyer's name and replaces the seller's. The provenance is saved: the list of earlier owners, in order, stays with the item. Every old link keeps working: anyone who follows one, from a resale listing, an old email or a QR code on the box, is taken to the new certificate automatically. Both steps run in the background rather than instantly, so allow a little time before the confirmation email arrives, and again after the buyer confirms. Ask the buyer to check their spam or junk folder first. If the email address was mistyped when you submitted the transfer, contact the organisation that issued the certificate so they can correct it.
A confirmed transfer is final in one direction. To return the certificate, the new owner starts a transfer back the same way.
A buyer checks a TRUE Original certificate of authenticity in TRUE Verify, free and without an account. Paste the certificate link or document ID, or scan the TRUE QR code, and TRUE Verify returns a security level rating in seconds, built on the blockchain proof behind the document.
The answer does not depend on the seller's word. A paper certificate has no such check built in: a buyer with doubts, or an owner whose certificate is torn or lost, has to go back to the artist, gallery or maker who signed it.
Only a TRUE Original certificate of authenticity for a product can change owner. TRUE certificates that prove ownership of a transferable item, jewelry, art, collectibles, vehicles, anything that can change hands, carry the option. A certificate issued to a company cannot be transferred, and neither can a personal certificate such as a diploma: it belongs to the person who earned it, not to whoever holds the link, so TRUE Original never offers a transfer option on one. If the option is missing, open the certificate with the personal link from the original email rather than a shared verification link. If it is still missing, that certificate cannot be transferred, and the issuing organisation can confirm why.
Transfer is built for proof about an object. A diploma, a professional licence or a course certificate is proof about the person who earned it, not a document that follows an object from one owner to the next. It is tied permanently to the individual who earned it, and TRUE keeps it that way even after a transfer request is attempted elsewhere in a person's life, such as a name change.
A Digital Product Passport is the EU's digital record for a product, introduced by the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781), in force since 18 July 2024. The European Commission describes it as “a digital identity card for products, components, and materials, which will store relevant information to support products’ sustainability, promote their circularity and strengthen legal compliance.”
A certificate of authenticity proves that one object is genuine. A Digital Product Passport carries a product's documented history, from materials and origin to repairs. Authenticity sits inside the passport too: the Commission writes that it “will also allow customs authorities to perform automatic checks on the existence and authenticity of the DPPs of imported products.”
TRUE Original issues both as TRUE documents on the same engine. Each is anchored on a public blockchain (TRUE uses several, among them Ethereum and Polygon), opens from a QR code or a link, and can be checked by anyone in TRUE Verify. TRUE Original already ties ownership to the product itself for high-end watches, jewellery and art. The details are in Digital Product Passports: Getting Started with TRUE.
Yes. The TRUE Original integration with Shopify issues a blockchain-secured certificate when a customer buys a qualifying product and shows it on the order page with a link and a QR code. That makes it simple for a Shopify store to issue certificates of value, certificates of authenticity and certificates of ownership. A rule by tag, product type or collection decides which products get one, and each detail on the certificate is read from the store rather than typed in again.
A brand, gallery or jeweller issuing certificates of authenticity needs a certificate that a buyer can check without calling the issuer, and that holds through every resale. TRUE Original issues certificates of authenticity and Digital Product Passports on the issuer's own domain and anchors each one on a public blockchain. The owner of a TRUE certificate of authenticity can hand it to the next buyer, with the buyer's own confirmation. High-end watch retailers use TRUE Original for certificates of value on watches such as Rolex and Patek Philippe: Nymans Ur, the premier luxury watch retailer in the Nordics, issues a blockchain-secured certificate automatically when a watch is bought. A brand can also charge the customer for the certificate, which turns issuing into a source of revenue.
Issuing runs from the TRUE dashboard, from a REST API with five endpoints, from a structured email or from a Shopify store. TRUE Original has issued over 900,000 documents for more than 200 issuers in over 15 countries. Every document type TRUE issues is on the TRUE Original features page.
A certificate of authenticity is a document that identifies one specific item and states that it is genuine, naming the maker, artist or brand behind the claim. A TRUE Original certificate of authenticity is a TRUE document anchored on a public blockchain, and anyone can check it in TRUE Verify.
Hand the proof to the buyer together with the item. For a TRUE Original certificate, open it with the personal link from your email, select Change ownership at the bottom of the page, enter the buyer's name and email address, accept the terms and submit. The transfer is complete when the buyer confirms by email.
Keep every piece and contact the artist, gallery or maker who issued it, because the issuer is the one who can confirm its own certificate. A TRUE Original certificate of authenticity lives at a link on the issuer's domain, so a torn printout or a lost tag does not take the proof with it. This answer covers a paper certificate of authenticity for a real object, such as a watch, a signed print or a painting.
Not by reversing it. Once the buyer confirms, the certificate belongs to the buyer, and to return it the new owner starts a transfer back the same way.
No. Anyone following an old link to a TRUE Original certificate of authenticity is taken to the new owner's certificate automatically, so links shared in listings and emails keep working.
Anyone can check a TRUE Original certificate of authenticity in TRUE Verify, free and without an account, by pasting the link or document ID or scanning the TRUE QR code. TRUE Verify returns a security level rating in seconds.
The listing posted years ago, the email sent on the day of the sale, the QR code on the old box: each one still opens the certificate. The name on it is the buyer's.
Every organisation we work with started with the same question. Give us thirty minutes and we will show you what your own documents would be worth.
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