This is the third installment in FOUNDATIONS, a multi-part series exploring emerging principles in the digi-physical space.

As discussed in our previous post on the Pull Model, we first linked ERC721s to physical items back in July 2021. Since then, we’ve seen many brands adopt the Pull Model, solidifying the belief that an item should remain linked to its digital counterpart in perpetuity.

To date, the chips we’ve used rely on a symmetric key when generating a message for every tap. From the beginning, we knew that an asymmetric signer was required in order to have self-sovereign items. While we considered making such a chip ourselves, we were excited to discover KONG had already done so.

However, building on KONG's chip model at the time would have required our baseline user experience to have 2 taps: one tap to access the web interface, and another tap to push a cryptographic challenge to the private key in the chip.

When building user flows that don't require extreme security--such as minting POAPs IRL or watching exclusive content--we felt it was important that these remain as frictionless as possible. A single verified tap allows these features to blend seamlessly into the moments in which they're activated.

As a result, we’ve been working with KONG the last few months to introduce a new version of the HaLo chip that combines the decentralization of an asymmetric signer with the ease of use of a single tap–and today, we’re excited to announce our support for KONG chips.

This new version of the HaLo turns the second keyslot into a non-interactive one, where each scan signs an incrementing nonce. This allows smart contracts and servers to invalidate replayed taps by only accepting those with a nonce higher than the one currently stored.

Starting today, you’ll be able to use all of the IYK modules you know and love–POAP, Beams, SMS, and more–on these new HaLos.

If you use KONG chips today, look out for an announcement on how to enroll them in our platform soon. The first drop utilizing KONG × IYK is DECODE’s Building Positive Space drop with Bryce Wong, arriving this week to those who’ve purchased.

✱,
Chris & Ryan, Co-Founders

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