Core concepts

The protection chain

Everything you protect in AuthPlus follows the same five-level chain. Understanding it makes every screen in the dashboard predictable, because each level is simply a list of the level below it.

Level	What it is	Example
1. Brand	The name behind your items. Everything you register belongs to a brand.	Aurora Watches
2. Subject Product · Asset · Content	The thing you protect, or a category of them. Its type decides how it is verified.	Aurora Chrono 42
3. Item	A concrete unit: a production batch, one individual valuable, or one document entry.	Batch AC42-2026-A
4. Issuance	One act of minting codes for an item. An item can have several issuances over time.	10 Public codes, 30 July 2026
5. Code	A single unique authenticity code, printed as text and as a QR code.	2H7KLM4GUEXDVM

In the dashboard you walk down this chain by clicking: a brand’s products, a product’s batches, a batch’s issuances, an issuance’s codes. Breadcrumbs at the top of each screen show you where you are and let you climb back up.

The three kinds of subject

A subject’s type is chosen when you create it and cannot be changed afterwards. It determines which section of the dashboard the subject lives in, how codes are issued for it, and what a verifier sees when it is scanned.

	Products	Assets	Contents
For	Manufactured goods produced in quantity	Unique valuables: art, jewellery, collectibles	Files: certificates, official documents, media
Item means	A production batch	One individual piece	One document entry
Codes per item	Many — one per physical unit	Normally one	One per uploaded file
Issued by	Choosing a quantity	Choosing a quantity	Uploading files — each file becomes one code
Verified by	Scanning the printed code	Scanning the code on the certificate	Scanning the code, or checking the file itself
Verifier sees	Brand, product, batch, dates, scan history	An ownership certificate with its provenance	A certification record and the document

Note · Why contents are different

A content code certifies a file, not an object. When the file is uploaded, AuthPlus computes its digital fingerprint — a value derived from the file’s exact contents. Verification recomputes that fingerprint and compares. Change a single character of the document and the fingerprint no longer matches, so tampering is detectable even without the code.

Authenticity codes and code types

A code is a short random string, unique across the platform, printed as text and encoded in a QR code. Codes are not sequential and cannot be guessed from one another.

Every code belongs to a code type, chosen at issuance. Code types are configured centrally for the whole platform and typically follow the distribution chain:

Code type	Intended for	Typical placement
Public	End customers. The default.	Visible on the product or its packaging
Reseller	Distributors and retail partners	On the carton or delivery documents
Control	Internal inspection and enforcement	Hidden or restricted placement

Warning · Code types and verifier types must match

A verifier can only verify the code type it is entitled to. A Control profile scanning a Public code is refused, and vice versa. If a scan is rejected as not permitted, check which profile is active before assuming the code is bad — see §10.3 Switching the active profile.

Verifiers and verifier types

A verifier is the identity under which a scan is recorded — a shop, an employee, an inspector, or simply an anonymous consumer device. Verifiers are not dashboard user accounts; they exist so that an item’s history is meaningful, and so that custody can be tracked as goods move.

Each verifier belongs to a verifier type, which decides how it behaves:

• Public — created automatically on first launch of the app. No credentials, no setup. This is what an ordinary customer uses without ever noticing.
• Reseller — for trade partners; also self-provisioning, but tied to reseller codes.
• Control — restricted inspection accounts. These are created by the platform administrator and handed out with a username and password (see Control verifiers).

Verifier types can also require the device’s location before a scan is accepted, restrict a verifier to codes created by a particular owner, or fill in the verifier’s profile automatically from the device.

What a verification produces

Every scan — successful or not — creates an operation: a permanent line in the audit trail recording what was scanned, by which verifier, when, from where, and with what result. Operations are what feed the dashboard’s statistics, the map, and the warning system.

The verdict falls into one of three classes:

Verdict	Meaning	What to do
Authentic	The code exists, is active, and nothing about the scan is unusual.	Proceed with confidence.
Authentic, with a warning	The code is genuine, but the circumstances deserve attention — most often because it has been verified more times than a single item plausibly would be.	Treat with care; the item may be genuine while its code has been copied.
Non Authentic	The code does not exist, or it has been blocked or archived.	Do not trust the item. Report it to the brand.

The exhaustive list of outcomes, with the exact message shown for each, is in §12 Verdict reference.

Archiving — nothing is ever deleted

AuthPlus is an evidence system, so records are not destroyed. Instead of deleting a brand, product, item, issuance, code or verifier, you archive it. An archived record stays visible (behind the Archived filter), keeps its history, and can be restored.

Archiving has one immediate, deliberate consequence:

Warning · Archiving stops verification, and it cascades

A code whose brand, subject, item or issuance is archived stops verifying — scans of it return Non Authentic. This is the intended way to withdraw a batch from circulation. Restore the record and its codes verify again.

Use it deliberately: archiving a brand silently disables every code beneath it. When you only need to stop one batch, archive that issuance rather than anything higher up the chain.