Case Study - Breaking the counterfeit economy with NFC authentication

Overview

Certenticat approached Toshi Labs with a mission to combat the $1.82 trillion global counterfeiting industry through cutting-edge authentication technology. The vision was to create an unclonable product authentication system that would protect brands and consumers from fake products while providing instant verification capabilities.

The core of the solution revolves around NTAG242 NFC chips, each containing 888 bytes of total memory with 492 bytes available for user data. These chips are embedded into products and utilize advanced cryptographic features including password protection and 32-bit authentication counters. The NTAG242's unique selling point is its ability to store cryptographic signatures that can be verified against blockchain records, making each authenticated product truly unique and impossible to duplicate.

Our implementation leverages the NTAG242's native security features including the originality signature (UID-based authentication) and password-protected memory sectors. Each chip is programmed with a unique cryptographic key during the manufacturing process, which is then registered on the blockchain. This dual-layer security approach ensures that even if someone attempts to clone the NFC data, they cannot replicate the blockchain verification, making counterfeiting virtually impossible.

The platform architecture combines multiple technologies: the NTAG242 chips provide the physical authentication layer, smart contracts on Ethereum maintain immutable ownership and authenticity records, and our custom-built web platform enables partners to manage their product catalogs, track authentication events, and analyze anti-counterfeiting metrics. The mobile SDK we developed allows seamless integration into existing apps, enabling instant NFC scanning and verification with sub-second response times.

What we did