Computer hardware and hand-held electronic units for the input, output, storage, and processing of data for the registration of the provenance and authenticity of manufactured products, documents, physical assets, works of art, historical artifacts, historical and sports memorabilia, collectible objects, jewelry and valuables, digital media, and any item of personal property whose value is based on or enhanced by establishing provenance and/or authenticity of the item; printers for applying a unique optically-readable identifier to physical objects; computer software and application interface programming for assigning cryptographic identifiers to manufactured products, documents, physical assets, works of art, historical artifacts, historical and sports memorabilia, collectible items, jewelry and valuables, digital media, and any item of personal property whose value is based on or enhanced by establishing provenance and/or authenticity of the item, and for registering the cryptographic identifier in association with the provenance and authenticity of the item in a secure database; optical detectors and computer software and application interface programming for use in detection of unique optical features on or within an item and for detection and decoding of optically-readable identifiers associated with the manufactured products, documents, physical assets, works of art, historical artifacts, historical and sports memorabilia, collectible objects, jewelry and valuables, digital media, and any item of personal property whose value is based on or enhanced by establishing provenance and/or authenticity of the item; downloadable software for computing devices, mobile phones and tablets for detection of unique optical features and decoding of optically-readable identifiers associated with manufactured products, documents, physical assets, works of art, historical artifacts, historical and sports memorabilia, collectible objects, jewelry and valuables, digital media, and any item of personal property whose value is based on or enhanced by establishing provenance and/or authenticity of the item, and for accessing information corresponding to the provenance and authenticity of items registered in the system

providing a web site featuring technology that enables internet users to register ownership of an item having a cryptographic identifier, to research the provenance and/or authenticity of an item having a cryptographic identifier, to manage of data relating to the provenance and/or authenticity of an item having a cryptographic identifier, and to record a transfer of ownership of an item having a cryptographic identifier; providing a website featuring technology that enables internet users to download software and application interface programming to local computing devices for registering ownership of an item having a cryptographic identifier, for researching the provenance and/or authenticity of an item having a cryptographic identifier, for management of data relating to the provenance and/or authenticity of an item having a cryptographic identifier, and for recording a transfer of ownership of an item having a cryptographic identifier