For Makers

Who This Is For

BE Authentic is a horizontal trust layer. We license it to verticals — companies that build specific products on top of the protocol. We’re particularly interested in conversations with:

• Instrument makers who want to ship authenticated instruments without building a verification platform from scratch.
• Collectibles and specialty goods manufacturers where provenance is the product — watches, vintage equipment, limited editions, signed memorabilia.
• Professional tool manufacturers where calibration history, ownership, and maintenance records matter — surveying equipment, scientific instruments, medical devices in non-regulated categories.
• Certification and credentialing bodies who issue physical credentials and want a tamper-resistant way to track them.
• Restoration and repair specialists whose work increases the value of an object and whose attestation should travel with it.
• Independent appraisers who want their professional assessments to carry forward across resale.
• Insurance carriers seeking verified provenance for high-value items.
• Brand authentication programs for any category where counterfeit is a customer problem.

The first BE Authentic Licensee, Arcform Musical Instruments, makes authenticated electric guitars. We expect the second through tenth Licensees to look very different from each other — and from Arcform. That’s the point.

What Vector Normal Provides

• The protocol and underlying patents. BE Authentic is built on patent-pending technology (US 63/980,424). Your license grants you the right to operate authenticated products using the protocol.
• The verification infrastructure. Our servers receive, verify, sign, and record every tap. Your customers don’t need to know we exist; they just see a verified provenance record on the product they bought.
• The cryptographic chip supply. We coordinate NFC chip procurement and provisioning. You receive verified chips ready for embedding in your products, with the cryptographic credentials already loaded.
• Mobile and web applications. The BE Authentic apps for iOS, Android, and the web are operated by Vector Normal. Your customers interact with your brand through your own apps and storefront, with BE Authentic verification appearing as a trust signal — your branding, not ours.
• The public registries. Your company is registered in the public Licensee registry. The AI engines you integrate (if any) are registered in the public AI engine registry. Both registries help your customers verify that your authentication claims are real.
• Documentation and integration support. Specifications, SDKs, sample code, integration patterns, and a dedicated partnership lead during onboarding.

What You Provide

• Your vertical expertise. What gets authenticated, what data fields matter for that category, what your customers care about. We’re the trust layer; you know the market.
• Your products. The physical objects that will carry BE Authentic chips. We don’t tell you what to make.
• Your customer relationship. Your storefront, your marketing, your customer support, your terms of sale. BE Authentic is plumbing inside your product; you own the customer.
• Your privacy commitments. Every Licensee maintains its own privacy policy that meets or exceeds applicable law, and honors BE Authentic’s privacy-by-design principles. Our standard license agreement makes those commitments contractual.
• The fee structure. Per-unit licensing fee, plus the cost of the chips themselves and any integration services. Specific numbers are discussed during the partnership conversation, since they vary substantially by product category, volume, and integration complexity.

How a Partnership Works

1. Initial conversation

You reach out (see contact below). We discuss what you make, what authentication would look like for your category, what data fields would live in the Provenance Record, and whether the partnership makes sense for both sides. Typical first call is 30 to 45 minutes.

2. Technical evaluation

If there’s mutual interest, we send you the technical specification, integration guide, and a sample chip kit. Your engineering team evaluates feasibility. We answer questions. This usually takes two to four weeks.

3. Commercial terms

We agree on a Licensee Agreement that covers: the per-unit licensing fee, chip pricing and procurement terms, integration milestones, data handling commitments (matching the BE Authentic Privacy Policy), the term and renewal structure, and the brand attribution we expect on your products (a small BE Authentic logo or callout, sized and placed appropriately for your category).

4. Integration

You integrate the BE Authentic SDK into your customer-facing applications or your internal authentication workflow. We support this with documentation and direct engineering help where useful. Typical integration time is six to twelve weeks, depending on the complexity of your existing systems.

5. Launch

Your first authenticated product ships. Your company appears in the public Licensee registry. Your customers can tap their products and see verified provenance. We coordinate launch press where it serves both sides.

6. Ongoing operation

Monthly invoicing for licensing fees and chip purchases. Quarterly technical updates from our side. Annual review of the partnership. As BE Authentic’s platform features expand, you get them automatically — practice tracking, group sessions, AI engine integration, marketplace features — provided they’re relevant to your category.

What the Brand Relationship Looks Like

BE Authentic is plumbing. Your customers buy products from your brand, not from us. Specific principles:

• Your branding leads. The BE Authentic logo or callout is present (per the license agreement) but secondary to your brand identity.
• Your customer support handles your products. We handle platform-level support — verification failures, key issues, account problems — through your support team or directly, depending on what you prefer.
• Your terms of service govern your transactions. BE Authentic’s terms cover the platform-level verification layer.
• Co-marketing is by mutual agreement. We won’t reference you publicly without your sign-off, and we ask the same from you.

Vector Normal isn’t trying to be a consumer-facing brand at scale. The goal is to be invisible infrastructure that makes your products more credible.

What Makes BE Authentic Different

If you’re evaluating against existing authentication platforms, the things that distinguish BE Authentic:

• Independent verifiability. Your customers can verify provenance records using our public keys without going through us. Your authentication doesn’t depend on Vector Normal staying in business.
• Privacy by design. No GPS, no tracking, no surveillance. Customers who care about privacy (which, increasingly, is everyone) won’t reject your authenticated products on principle.
• AI accountability built in. If your category involves AI tools — and most will, eventually — the protocol attributes AI participation explicitly. You don’t have to bolt this on later.
• Horizontal, not captive. You’re not building on a platform that competes with you. We don’t enter your category, ever. Our business model depends on Licensees succeeding in their verticals.
• Patent-protected. The underlying IP is owned by Vector Normal and licensed to you. That makes your authentication claims harder to commoditize and easier to defend.

What to Send Us in a First Email

If you’re ready to have the conversation, a useful first email contains:

• Your company and what you make;
• The product category and approximate annual unit volume you’re considering for authentication;
• What problem you’re trying to solve (counterfeit, provenance, credentialing, AI attribution, something else);
• Your timeline expectations;
• The right technical and commercial contacts on your side.

Send to info@be-authentic.me. We’ll respond within five business days.

If you’re earlier than a partnership conversation — exploring whether the model could fit your category — we’re also happy to have an exploratory call. Same email address, different framing.