Former Tesla product manager wants to make luxury goods impossible to fake, starting with a chip | TechCrunch

"Luxury brands lose more than $30 billion a year to counterfeits, while buyers in the booming $210 billion second-hand market have no reliable way to verify that what they're purchasing is genuine. Veritas wants to solve both problems with a solution that combines custom hardware and software. The startup claims that it has developed a "hack-proof" chip that can't be bypassed by devices like Flipper Zero, a widely available hacking tool that can be used to tamper with wireless systems."

"Vertitas founder Luci Holland has experienced life as both a technologist and an artist. She has worked in different artistic mediums, including mixed media painting and metal sculpture. She has also worked at Tesla as a technical product manager and has held several business development, community growth, and product management roles at tech companies and venture funds."

"Holland noted that traditionally, luxury goods makers use various symbols or physical marks to authenticate their products. However, with the growing demand for these goods, counterfeiters have learned to create convincing copies of these marks along with high-quality fake certificates. These goods are often called "superfakes." Holland mentioned that she spoke with maisons - established luxury fashion houses - that said that some of their locations had to stop authenticating goods because fakes were becoming too convincing to reliably detect."

Counterfeits cost luxury brands more than $30 billion annually and the $210 billion second-hand market lacks reliable verification methods. The startup combines custom hardware and software to provide authentication for both brands and buyers. A hack-proof chip is paired with digital certificates to verify product authenticity and to prevent bypassing by tools like Flipper Zero. The founder, Luci Holland, has backgrounds in technology and art, with experience in mixed media, metal sculpture, Tesla product management, and roles in business development and product at tech companies and venture funds. Counterfeiters increasingly produce convincing "superfakes" and some maisons have stopped authenticating goods as a result.

Read at TechCrunch