About The NFC Mint

Our Mission

The NFC Mint provides cryptographic product authentication for consumers and businesses alike. For the person holding a product, one tap confirms it is genuine. For the company that made it, we provide independent third-party chain-of-custody verification that regulators, insurers, and institutional buyers can trust.

Why Independent Verification?

For consumers, independent verification means the authenticity confirmation they see is not just the brand saying "trust us." It is a cryptographic proof generated by the product's own hardware and validated by an independent system. That distinction is what separates genuine confidence from marketing.

For businesses operating under regulatory scrutiny, the independence is even more critical. A company cannot credibly self-attest provenance to a regulator. The answer "because an independent cryptographic system, operated by an auditable third party, says so" carries legal and regulatory weight that self-reporting never can.

This is the same structural logic behind independent financial auditors. No company hires their auditor as an employee. The NFC Mint exists because independent verification of physical provenance serves everyone in the chain, from the end consumer to the compliance officer.

Infrastructure & Security

Cryptographic keys are stored in hardware security modules (HSMs), the same infrastructure used by banks and certificate authorities. Product cryptographic identities never exist in software. The system employs:

• Distributed HSM Network: Key material is distributed across multiple hardware security modules with no single point of compromise.

• ECC Chip Verification: Every tag is verified against NXP's factory-programmed elliptic curve signatures before enrollment.

• AES-CMAC Attestation: Each scan generates a unique, non-replayable cryptographic proof using the tag's monotonic counter.

• Counter-Based Replay Prevention: Rolling counters ensure old signatures cannot be reused and future signatures cannot be predicted.

• Real-Time Abuse Detection: Automated monitoring for anomalous scan patterns, counter divergence, and clone attempts.

Technology

We use NXP NTAG 424 DNA chips, the only NFC chip family that supports Secure Dynamic Messaging with hardware-backed key storage. Each chip contains a secure enclave that makes key extraction virtually impossible, and deterministic key slots limit the attack surface even if extraction were somehow achieved.

Every tag registered with The NFC Mint contains a unique cryptographic key. When scanned, the chip generates a signature using its secret key, UID, and monotonic counter. Our validation service verifies this signature and checks the manufacturer's ECC originality signatures of the chip itself.

Validation Methods

URL Validation: Tapping a tag generates a unique URL containing encrypted validation data. No app is required, making it convenient for field verification and shareable as proof of custody.

App-Based Validation: Our iOS and Android apps perform direct chip communication to verify the physical chip's authenticity via NXP's ECC signatures. This provides the highest level of assurance for high-value items and regulatory contexts.

Important Notice

The NFC Mint LLC is the attestation infrastructure provider and authenticator but does not necessarily package or sell items authenticated by The NFC Mint. Losses arising from faulty readings or exploitation in the system are at the risk of the end user. Always use multiple means to verify authenticity when making purchasing decisions.

Trademark Notice

NXP and NTAG are registered trademarks of NXP B.V. The NFC Mint LLC has no affiliation with NXP B.V.

Contact

Compliance Inquiries: hello@nfcmint.com

Technical Support: support@nfcmint.com