Fair AI starts with real Originals. Help us protect them

In the age of AI, the origin and integrity of data, models, and content become a competitive factor. Organizations need reliable mechanisms to track, authenticate, and verifiably protect digital assets.

While regulatory approaches such as the EU AI Act primarily focus on labeling synthetic content, on:mint takes a complementary approach.

We build technical and legal mechanisms that make genuine digital assets – data, content, source code, and intellectual property – provably protected, versioned, and trustworthy over time.

To achieve this, on:mint is building a blockchain-based platform that provides a shared core technology for digital provenance, data integrity, and controlled data usage. On top of this foundation, we develop multiple specialized product lines, including digital watermarking, archive anchoring, digital escrow, connected data spaces, and AI audit trails.

The result is a trust infrastructure for digital assets. Digital provenance becomes operational.

on:mint is primarily B2B-focused and designed for organizations where digital assets are business-critical and where integrity, control, and verifiability must be actively managed.

Typical users include:

• enterprises and corporations with critical software, proprietary data, or core digital IP
• media companies, rights holders, and IP-driven business models
• SaaS, technology, and AI companies with proprietary models, training data, or production-critical code
• investors and venture capital firms seeking to protect investments, IP, and value creation
• public-sector clients and regulated industries with formal requirements for evidence and control

In addition, certain product lines – especially cryptographic watermarking – are also suitable for B2C use cases, such as creatives and individual rights holders who want to verifiably secure the origin and authenticity of their work.

What all use cases have in common is this: on:mint is used wherever trust in digital assets must be established operationally and secured systematically.

on:mint uses its own fork of the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) as a decentralized storage and distribution layer. Unlike traditional cloud storage systems, which rely on location-based addressing, IPFS addresses files by their content.

In practice, this means:

• each file receives a cryptographic hash, known as a Content Identifier (CID), which uniquely represents its exact content
• any change, no matter how small, automatically creates a new address
• manipulation, overwriting, or undetected changes become immediately visible at a technical level

In traditional location-based storage systems, a file can be replaced or modified at the same address without reliable proof after the fact.

IPFS eliminates this problem by design. The result is a key property: all parties always reference the exact same digital object. If two parties see the same file, they can provably see the same content. This principle is often described as “I see the data you see” and forms the basis for making digital originals technically verifiable.

Files are stored across multiple decentralized nodes. If one node fails, others continue to serve the data. There is no single point of failure. The IPFS nodes run on servers provided by Scaleway and IONOS. The middleware that connects customers to the platform is also fully EU-hosted via Scaleway.

on:mint extends IPFS with fine-grained token gating combined with role-based access control.

Within on:mint, this approach is referred to as gated IPFS.

Access to data spaces and data vaults is enforced in a technically binding manner:

• token-based authorization ties access to the possession of specific cryptographic tokens
• role-based access control defines permissions and allowed actions by role
• smart-contract-based enforcement ensures that access rules are applied automatically and documented in an audit-ready way

This allows business-critical digital assets to be stored in a decentralized manner while remaining strictly controlled.

Confidentiality and control are preserved at all times, without sacrificing the benefits of decentralized infrastructure.

IPFS and blockchain serve complementary roles within on:mint.

IPFS functions as the storage and integrity layer. Digital assets are stored there and addressed by their content. Each file has a unique hash that makes manipulation immediately detectable and ensures that the same data state is always referenced.

The blockchain complements IPFS with a public, immutable proof and audit layer.

In practice, this means:

• relevant events such as uploads, version changes, and access states are documented
• these events are recorded as compact hashes and timestamps on a public blockchain
• only cryptographic fingerprints are anchored, never the content itself

Anchoring is multi-chain capable, for example via Polygon, to ensure interoperability and long-term resilience.

The key value of the blockchain lies in its independence from the IPFS system. It acts as an external, publicly verifiable reference.

While IPFS proves that a file is unchanged, the blockchain additionally proves:

• that a specific state existed at a specific point in time
• that a deposit or modification actually occurred
• that this information cannot be altered retroactively

In this way, the blockchain functions like a digital notary. It does not attest to the content itself, but to the existence, timing, and integrity of states. Permanently, audit-ready, and verifiable by third parties. All relevant entries are transparently accessible through the on:mint Blockchain Explorer.