US Patent Awarded on Built-In Authentication for Vinyl

With sales of vinyl records rocketing in recent years, it was inevitable that counterfeiters would enter the market to try to make a fast buck – and a recently published US patent describes one way to fight back, reports SecuringIndustry.com

A patent awarded to an organisation known as Citizen Digital, in North Carolina, covers the use of an embedded electronic authentication tag bearing a code generated from a unique visual pattern created in the centre of the disc during the pressing process.

That unique code is linked to a non-fungible token (NFT) – a digital certificate that verifies ownership and authenticity of a digital or physical asset – on the Ethereum blockchain. The link between physical and digital is provided by a near-field communication tag pressed into the vinyl of the disc.

Citizen Digital is developing the smartphone-scannable NFT chips on vinyl pressings – billed as ‘next- level collectible vinyl’ – under the VinylKey brand.