Chronicled, Inc., a San Francisco-based technology company, is partnering with Origin, a 3D printing company, to develop a tamper-proof retail ‘smart tag’ guaranteeing the authenticity of high value consumer goods.

Each two-tone plastic tag is formed around an onboard computer during Origin's printing process, the first time this has ever been done using any 3D-printing technology. Origin has been able to iterate through more than 70 tag prototypes over a three-month period, ultimately yielding a high-quality, consumer grade product with the Ember 3D printer from Autodesk, Inc.

Founded in 2014, Chronicled is developing a platform for 100% authentic products to be tagged, registered, verified and transferred on a mobile app. The platform provides a digital record of real world things. Chronicled assigns an identity to products by applying “smart tags” and “smart labels”, which contain encrypted microchips that link the objects to their digital records.  It intends all product registrations to be hosted on a blockchain based system.

The smart tags allow legitimate retailers to permanently embed their stamp of authenticity on items that may trade many times between collectors on secondary markets. Moreover, brands and retailers can interact directly with customers through the Chronicled App (available for download in the App Store and Play Store).

Collectors can scan a tag with a smart phone to view the profile of an item, including a link to the retailer where it was originally sold. From there, they are able to like, comment, and trade with other collectors, retailers, and brands without ever having to question the genuine nature of an item.

“In the past, consumers have had to rely on imperfect solutions when purchasing high-end items," said Chronicled CEO Ryan Orr. "Especially online, buyers have had to gamble on the trustworthiness of often anonymous sellers in a world where the quality and preponderance of counterfeit goods is increasing with each passing year. These 3D printed smart tags solve that problem by giving each item a unique, unforgeable identity running on a blockchain backend”.

Origin allows customers to prototype, test market, and scale the manufacture of high quality consumer-grade products with the speed and flexibility missing from traditional manufacturing.

“The 3D-printed Chronicled tag is the first product that can be adapted to fit entirely different markets in minutes; we can match the product's look and feel to fit brands, retailers, and consumer tastes in different luxury-good markets without additional costs or delays," said Origin CEO Chris Prucha.

Chronicled recently announced that it raised an additional $3,425,000 in a series seed financing round and intends to use the funding to build up its customer base, to implement a first-of-its-kind encrypted BLE tagging solution, and to expand its data and analytics capabilities.