Hi, I'm back to the forum after a long time... I see many of you old members are still active! I don't know if this was posted before, but I think it's great: the Certi-Lock-packaged Scottsdale Gold Bars with QR codes. You can actually digitally check if your bar is genuine. This helps getting "more" genuine bars [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8G815r31tI[/youtube]
What is preventing some Chinese factory from copying both serial and QR code? I installed the app and entered QR and serial from this commercial, it checks out. Maybe it should also report how many times it was checked and from where. If the same serial was checked like a 100 times... from all over the globe..
^ Not sure how this works with duplicates (QR duplicates)... They could simply clone the QR codes. But I reckon what would make things difficult to counterfeiters would be knowing all the existing QR codes. So, they need to have access to the real bars to scan them to reproduce all the QR codes. I think this adds to the security, but then again, who knows... we can never trust anything 100 %...
It certainly makes it more time consuming, but not difficult. Actually, it's better for the counterfeiter in some respects because it gives the buyer false confidence. A counterfeiter would buy legitimate bars, copy the QR code and serial for the fake, sell the fake as real and send the real bars off for melting. If there's never more than one bar/QR/serial combo in circulation, the scam would remain undetected until someone tried to sell back to a dealer who checks the "synthetic DNA", but by then the whole system is compromised and effectively worthless. And there would be a lot of pissed off people who suddenly realize that using an app on their phone is not a substitute for actual security.