Roadmap How It Works Whitepaper About Partners Community FAQ
EST. 2025 — URBAN DOCUMENTATION PROTOCOL

PROOF
THE
STREET.

The first open protocol for verifying, archiving, and attributing street art on-chain. Every wall has a story. We make sure it's never erased.

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Development Timeline

ROADMAP

Click any phase to explore milestones in detail. Drag or scroll to navigate the timeline.

PHASE 01
COMPLETED
GENESIS

Foundation, concept validation, and core team assembly.

PHASE 02
COMPLETED
PROTOCOL

Core verification algorithm and metadata schema design.

PHASE 03
IN PROGRESS
CAPTURE

Mobile app beta, AI tagging engine, and early adopter onboarding.

PHASE 04
Q3 2025
VERIFY

On-chain verification layer, artist attribution, and dispute resolution.

PHASE 05
Q4 2025
NETWORK

Public archive launch, API access, and partner integrations.

PHASE 06
2026
OWNERSHIP

Artist royalty protocol, collector marketplace, and DAO governance.

PHASE 07
2026+
CITY

Municipal partnerships, preservation mandates, and cultural institutions.

97
of street art is lost
within 5 years

Street art is not vandalism. It is the city talking to itself.

— THE ARTPROOF MANIFESTO, §1

Every painted wall is a timestamp. Every timestamp deserves to survive.

— THE ARTPROOF MANIFESTO, §2

We don't erase history. We proof it.

— THE ARTPROOF MANIFESTO, §3
Process

HOW IT
WORKS

01
CAPTURE
📸
Point the ArtProof app at any street art piece. The camera captures high-resolution imagery with automatic GPS tagging, timestamp embedding, and ambient light calibration. No special equipment needed — your phone is your instrument.
→ GPS + timestamp embedded
→ HDR image capture
→ Works offline
→ iOS + Android
02
VERIFY
🔍
Our AI engine scans for style fingerprints, cross-references known artist databases, checks for duplicate submissions, and assigns a confidence score. Community validators can challenge or confirm the attribution within a 72-hour window.
→ AI style fingerprinting
→ Duplicate detection
→ Community validation
→ 72hr dispute window
03
TAG
🏷️
Once verified, the artwork receives a permanent ArtProof ID — a unique hash combining location, timestamp, and visual data. This ID is written to the public archive and linked to the artist's profile if attribution is confirmed.
→ Permanent ArtProof ID
→ Metadata standardization
→ Artist profile linking
→ Open archive entry
04
OWN
Artists claim their verified works and earn attribution royalties when images are used commercially. Collectors and institutions can acquire proof-of-documentation certificates. The street belongs to everyone — but credit belongs to the artist.
→ Artist claim system
→ Attribution royalties
→ Documentation certificates
→ Institutional licensing
Documentation

WHITE
PAPER

Chapter 01

THE PROBLEM

Street art is one of the most significant art movements of the last century, yet it remains one of the most poorly documented. An estimated 97% of street art is painted over, destroyed, or deteriorated within five years of creation — and with it, all record of the artist, the context, and the cultural moment it represented.

Existing documentation tools — social media, photography archives, academic databases — are fragmented, unverified, and inaccessible. Artists have no reliable way to claim their work. Collectors have no way to verify authenticity. Cities have no way to build coherent cultural records.

THE GAP IN THE MARKET

  • No standardized metadata schema for street art documentation
  • No open, verifiable attribution system for artists
  • No protocol connecting physical artwork to a permanent digital record
  • No mechanism for artists to earn from commercial use of their documented work

ArtProof exists to close this gap. We are not a social media platform. We are not a gallery. We are infrastructure for the permanent, verifiable documentation of public art.

Chapter 02

PROTOCOL DESIGN

The ArtProof Protocol (APP) is an open standard for capturing, encoding, and storing verifiable records of street art. It operates in three layers: the Capture Layer, the Verification Layer, and the Archive Layer.

CAPTURE LAYER

Every submission begins with a Capture Event — a structured data packet containing imagery, GPS coordinates, timestamp, device signature, and optional artist declaration. Capture Events are cryptographically signed at point of creation to prevent tampering.

METADATA SCHEMA (AP-META v1)

  • Artwork ID: SHA-256 hash of image + coordinates + timestamp
  • Location: Lat/Long + street address + what3words reference
  • Timestamp: Unix timestamp + UTC offset
  • Capture device: Device fingerprint (anonymized)
  • Artist declaration: Optional signed claim with wallet address
  • Style tags: AI-generated taxonomy (medium, style, scale)

The AP-META schema is compatible with existing cultural heritage standards including Dublin Core, LIDO, and IIIF manifests.

Chapter 03

VERIFICATION LAYER

Verification is the core innovation of ArtProof. We combine AI-driven analysis with community-based consensus to produce a confidence score for every submitted artwork.

AP-AI ENGINE

Our computer vision model is trained on a corpus of 2.4 million verified street art images spanning 140 cities. It performs style clustering, artist fingerprint matching, duplicate detection, surface classification, and cultural context tagging.

COMMUNITY VALIDATION

  • Any verified ArtProof user can review pending submissions
  • Validators stake reputation points on their decisions
  • Disputed attributions enter a 72-hour public review window
  • A supermajority of 67% is required to finalize attribution
  • Validators earn PROOF tokens for accurate consensus contributions

This hybrid approach ensures AI efficiency is balanced by human judgment — particularly important for anonymous or pseudonymous artists where AI fingerprinting alone is insufficient.

Chapter 04

TOKENOMICS

The PROOF token is the economic backbone of the ArtProof ecosystem. It is a utility token designed to incentivize accurate documentation and fair attribution — not speculation.

TOKEN DISTRIBUTION

  • 40% — Community rewards (capturers, validators, artists)
  • 20% — Protocol development fund
  • 15% — Founding team (4-year vest, 1-year cliff)
  • 15% — Ecosystem grants (cultural institutions, city partners)
  • 10% — Reserve fund

TOKEN UTILITY

  • PROOF tokens earned by submitting verified artworks
  • Validators earn tokens for accurate consensus decisions
  • Artists claim royalties in PROOF when work is commercially used
  • Governance proposals require PROOF stake to submit
  • Premium API access priced in PROOF

Total supply is capped at 100,000,000 PROOF. Emission schedule follows a 4-year halving cycle aligned with network growth milestones.

Chapter 05

GOVERNANCE & DAO

ArtProof is governed by the ArtProof DAO — in which PROOF token holders collectively make decisions about protocol development, fee structures, grant allocations, and partnership approvals.

GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE

  • Any holder of 1,000+ PROOF can submit a governance proposal
  • Proposals pass with 60% approval and minimum 10% quorum
  • Core protocol changes require 75% supermajority
  • Emergency proposals can be fast-tracked via Security Council

TRANSITION TIMELINE

ArtProof transitions from core team governance to full DAO governance over 24 months. Phase 1 (0-12 months): Core team retains veto rights. Phase 2 (12-24 months): Graduated power transfer. Phase 3 (24+ months): Full DAO autonomy.

  • Cultural Heritage Grant Program — $2M annually in PROOF grants
  • City Partnership Fund — allocated by DAO vote each quarter
  • Artist Emergency Fund — fast-tracked dispute resolution funding
The People

ABOUT
ARTPROOF

ArtProof was founded in 2025 by a collective of street artists, technologists, and cultural archivists who shared one conviction: the most vital art of our time was disappearing without a trace.

We spent 18 months in the field — documenting walls in Jakarta, São Paulo, Berlin, and Detroit — before writing a single line of code. The protocol we built emerged directly from that fieldwork.

We are not a tech company that discovered art. We are an art community that built technology out of necessity.

140+Cities Mapped
2.4MArtworks Archived
12KActive Validators
97%Verification Accuracy
KR
KAI RAMOS
Co-Founder & CEO
KAI RAMOS
Co-Founder & CEO
"The city is the canvas. We're just making sure no one forgets who painted it."
SL
SUKI LEE
Co-Founder & CTO
SUKI LEE
Co-Founder & CTO
"Every hash is a heartbeat. The archive never sleeps."
MD
MARCO DIAZ
Head of Protocol
MARCO DIAZ
Head of Protocol
"Verification is an act of respect. We owe it to every artist."
AW
AMARA WEST
Community Lead
AMARA WEST
Community Lead
"Our validators are the real editors of this archive."
PN
PRIYA NAIR
Head of Partnerships
PRIYA NAIR
Head of Partnerships
"Institutions don't preserve culture. People do. We connect them."
TO
TOMO ODA
Lead Designer
TOMO ODA
Lead Designer
"The interface is invisible when the art speaks louder."
Collaborate

PARTNER
WITH US

We partner with cultural institutions, city governments, galleries, tech platforms, and brands that share our commitment to preserving urban art. Partnership is not sponsorship — it is active co-stewardship of public culture.

TIER 01
BRONZE
  • Logo placement in archive footer
  • Access to public dataset API
  • Quarterly impact report
  • 1 community event co-branding
TIER 02
SILVER
  • All Bronze benefits
  • Co-branded city documentation campaigns
  • Premium API access (unlimited)
  • 2 sponsored governance proposals
  • Validator node priority access
TIER 03
GOLD
  • All Silver benefits
  • Custom white-label archive integration
  • DAO advisory seat
  • Exclusive cultural grant co-funding
  • Joint press and media opportunities
  • Early access to new protocol features
CURRENT PARTNERS
START A CONVERSATION

Tell us about your organization. Our partnerships team responds within 5 business days.

Discussion

COMMUNITY
FORUM

KR
kai_ramos
DISCUSSION
How should we handle politically sensitive murals in the archive?

Some pieces we're documenting carry significant political weight — protest art, anti-government murals. What's our responsibility as an archive? Do we add context, or stay neutral?

SL
suki_protocol
QUESTION
AP-META v1.2 proposal — adding audio layer for sound installations

I've been thinking about pieces that incorporate sound or light. The current schema only covers visual media. Here's a draft extension spec — looking for community feedback before the governance vote.

AW
amara_west
SHOWCASE
Jakarta documentation sprint — 400 pieces in 72 hours

Our Southeast Asia team just wrapped the biggest single documentation sprint in ArtProof history. Posting highlights from across the city — some of these walls have already been painted over.

MD
marco_diaz
QUESTION
Validator incentive structure — are 72-hour windows too short?

Getting feedback that the 72-hour dispute window is creating problems for validators in different timezones. Exploring options: longer windows, async voting, or regional council review.

JOIN THE WAITLIST

The forum opens in Phase 3. Get early access, validator privileges, and founding member status.

CHANNELS
  • # general2.4k
  • # documentation891
  • # verification543
  • # governance312
  • # artists-corner1.1k
  • # partnerships204
  • # off-topic778
Help

FREQUENTLY
ASKED

What exactly is ArtProof?
+
ArtProof is an open protocol for verifying, archiving, and attributing street art. Think of it as a permanent, tamper-proof public record for urban art — combining AI verification, community consensus, and on-chain documentation.
Is ArtProof free to use?
+
The core documentation and archive features are free forever. Premium features — advanced API access, institutional integrations, and commercial licensing — are available through paid tiers and PROOF token usage.
Does ArtProof encourage illegal graffiti?
+
No. ArtProof documents what exists — it does not advocate for any particular form of art-making. We work with city governments and property owners as partners, and our community guidelines explicitly prohibit using the platform to coordinate illegal activity. Documentation is neutral; it is the act of witnessing, not endorsing.
What happens to artworks that get painted over?
+
This is precisely why ArtProof exists. Once documented and verified, an artwork's record is permanent — even if the physical piece is destroyed. The archive entry is immutable, the artist attribution is preserved, and the cultural moment is not lost.
How do I claim my artwork on ArtProof?
+
Once your work is submitted and enters the verification queue, you can file an Artist Claim through your profile. You'll need to provide supporting evidence — process photos, sketches, or a signed declaration. Claims are reviewed by the community within 72 hours.
What if I want to stay anonymous?
+
Anonymity is fully supported. You can operate under a pseudonym and connect your claim to a wallet address rather than a legal identity. Your on-chain record is permanent and tied to your pseudonymous identity.
How do royalties work for artists?
+
When your verified artwork is used commercially — in publications, advertising, or licensed reproductions — ArtProof's licensing protocol triggers an automatic royalty payment to your wallet in PROOF tokens. The standard rate is 15% of the licensing fee, adjustable by DAO governance.
Can I remove my work from the archive?
+
Artists who have claimed their work can apply for a Suppression Order — which hides the artwork from public search results while preserving the verification record. Full deletion is not possible given the on-chain nature of the archive.
How do I become a validator?
+
Validators must complete a 2-hour onboarding course covering art history basics, the AP-META schema, and community guidelines. Upon completion, you receive Validator status. Early validators during Phase 3 receive a founding bonus of 500 PROOF tokens.
What happens if I validate incorrectly?
+
Validators stake reputation points on each decision. Incorrect validations result in reputation loss. Repeated poor validation can lead to temporary suspension. This system ensures high accuracy while remaining fair to honest mistakes.
How much can validators earn?
+
Active validators completing 20+ reviews per week with 95%+ accuracy can earn between 200-800 PROOF tokens monthly in the current emission period. Token value fluctuates with market conditions.
Which blockchain does ArtProof use?
+
ArtProof is chain-agnostic at the archive layer, with primary deployment on Ethereum (for governance and tokenomics) and Arweave (for permanent data storage). We are exploring multi-chain expansion in Phase 5.
Is the protocol open source?
+
Yes. The AP-META schema, verification contracts, and archive indexer are all open source under MIT license. The AI model weights are currently proprietary but will be released under a research license in Phase 5. All smart contracts are audited and publicly verifiable.
How does the AI detect duplicate submissions?
+
Our duplicate detection uses perceptual hashing combined with GPS radius filtering. New submissions are compared against all existing entries within a 50-meter radius. Similarity above 85% triggers a manual review flag before the submission enters the standard verification queue.