> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.optivalux.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.optivalux.com/product/product-identity.md). # Product Identity **One product, one identity, for its whole life.** In Optivalux, identity belongs to the individual physical item, not to a product model, a SKU or a batch. Two watches of the same reference have two separate identities, two certificates and two histories. ## What makes up a product's identity | Element | Description | Can it change? | | ---------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Product certificate** | Issued by the brand for this one item. The anchor of the identity. | Its standing can change (Active, Suspended, Voided). The certificate itself is never deleted or reissued to another item. | | **Registered authenticator** | The secure element in the product that produces authenticity evidence. | Only through controlled processes. Before first ownership, the brand can replace it under the protocol's pre-ownership controls; after ownership begins, replacement follows the recovery rules. A replaced authenticator is permanently retired and can never be registered again. | | **Owner** | The account that holds the certificate once the product is claimed. | Only through an owner-authorized transfer. | | **Provenance** | The recorded history of the product. | It only grows. Recorded events are not erased. | The certificate is created when the brand registers the product. From then on, everything that happens to the product is attached to that same identity. ## Persistent, not static A continuous identity does not mean nothing ever changes. It means changes happen **to the same identity**, through defined processes, and leave a record: * ownership moves from owner to owner; * the brand can suspend a certificate while it investigates a concern, and reinstate it; * a lost or damaged authenticator can be replaced through recovery; * the history grows with each of these events. What does not happen: the identity is not silently replaced, reassigned to another item, or erased. ## One authenticator, one product An authenticator can be registered to at most one product, and each product has exactly one active authenticator at a time. Registration requires fresh evidence from the authenticator itself, bound to that specific registration, so a copied identifier cannot be registered to a different product. When an authenticator is replaced, the old one is **retired permanently**. If someone later taps a retired authenticator, verification reports it as retired, which is itself a useful signal of an old or copied tag. ## Three facts kept separate Every product record shows three independent statuses: | Dimension | States | Meaning | | ------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Ownership** | Unclaimed · Owned · Transfer pending | Who holds the product's certificate | | **Certificate standing** | Active · Suspended · Voided | Whether the brand's certificate is in good standing | | **Authentication** | Verified · Verification required · Verification unavailable · Recovery available · Recovery pending | Whether the physical authenticator can be checked now, and what happened last time | They are never collapsed into a single "valid / invalid" badge. For example, **Owned, Active, Verification unavailable** is a normal, legitimate state: the owner still holds the product and the certificate is in good standing; only verification is temporarily offline. See [Lifecycle & Status](/technical/lifecycle-and-status.md) for how these map to the protocol. ## What the identity does not contain * **Personal data.** The authenticator does not store the owner's identity, and personal details (names, email addresses, receipts) are not written to the core record. Public verification does not display the owner's identity or account. * **A guarantee.** The identity carries evidence and history. It does not by itself prove that the object is original. See [Claims & Limitations](/trust/claims-and-limitations.md). --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. 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