A patent has been applied for using blockchain to create a registry of owners of works of art.

The patent application, which was published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on Thursday, names its creator as Howard H. Sherin, a patent attorney in Scottsdale, Arizona. According to information from Sherin’s social networks, he works in Silicon Valley, where he “studied and actively participated in the cryptocurrency revolution.”

In the application, he writes: "In the past, artists issued paper certificates of authenticity for each of their works of art. This increased the value of the painting for all subsequent buyers. If the first buyer decided to resell the painting, he could show the second this certificate to confirm his ownership of the item. However, paper certificates are very easily forged, and this significantly reduces the effectiveness of the entire system of proof of ownership."

Sherin wants to patent the system, which will allow artists to establish and transfer ownership using the blockchain.

However, this method also has its disadvantages. Last month, for example, one blockchain critic, Terence Eden, managed to trick a similar proof-of-ownership platform, Verisart, which registers works of art on the Bitcoin blockchain, by requesting proof of his ownership of the Mona Lisa, and getting approval. 

Even now that the story has become a meme on social media, Eden is still listed online as the owner of the Mona Lisa, as no other "owners" have been found in the registry.

Sherin's proposed system uses a similar architecture, although ownership is established using Bitcoin addresses and the data is processed on a centralized website.

It could be said that such a system could make life easier for artists, but it still requires its clients to have complete trust in the centralized structure that maintains the database and verifies the information that is there.

According to ccn.com