Technology Overview

How Phygitals bridges physical and digital collectibles, including the tokenization process, blockchain infrastructure, wallet system, and digital-physical link.

Overview

Phygitals is a hybrid physical-digital collectibles platform built on the principle that every digital card is a real card. The platform uses blockchain technology to create verifiable digital representations of physical trading cards stored in professional vault facilities. This page provides a technical overview of how the system works.

How Tokenization Works

Tokenization is the process of creating a digital collectible that represents ownership of a specific physical trading card. Here is how a physical card becomes a digital asset on the Phygitals platform:

• 1. Physical intake: A professionally graded trading card is received at one of our vault partner facilities (PSA, Fanatics, or Alt). The card is authenticated, inspected, and catalogued.

• 2. Documentation: The card is photographed in high resolution and its metadata is recorded — including grading company, grade, certification number, card name, set, year, and any distinguishing characteristics.

• 3. Digital minting: A digital collectible is created on the Solana blockchain. This digital collectible is a unique, non-fungible token that contains the card's metadata and links directly to the specific physical card in the vault.

• 4. 1:1 binding: The digital collectible and the physical card are permanently linked. One digital collectible corresponds to exactly one physical card. The physical card remains in vault custody until the owner initiates a claim (redemption).

• 5. Ownership assignment: The digital collectible is delivered to the owner's wallet, where it can be viewed, traded, or held.

Blockchain Infrastructure

Phygitals uses the Solana blockchain as its primary infrastructure layer. Solana was chosen for its speed, low transaction costs, and ability to handle high-throughput operations required by a real-time marketplace.

• Network: Solana mainnet

• Token standard: Digital collectibles are minted as non-fungible tokens on Solana

• Transaction speed: Transactions on Solana typically confirm in under one second, enabling instant trading and transfers

• Transaction cost: Network fees on Solana are fractions of a cent, making frequent trading economically viable

• Currency: The primary platform currency is USDC (USD Coin), a dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Circle. USDT and SOL are also supported.

Wallet System

Phygitals provides a flexible wallet system that supports both new and experienced blockchain users:

• Embedded wallets: When you create an account, an embedded Solana wallet is automatically generated for you through Privy, our authentication and wallet infrastructure partner. Embedded wallets are fully functional Solana wallets that require no prior blockchain experience to use. Private keys are managed by Privy using secure, distributed key management infrastructure.

• External wallets: Users with existing Solana wallets can connect them to the platform. Compatible wallets include Phantom, Solflare, Backpack, Ledger, and other Solana-compatible wallets. When using an external wallet, you retain full control of your private keys.

Regardless of wallet type, your digital collectibles and wallet balances are visible and manageable through the Phygitals interface. Phygitals does not have direct access to your wallet's private keys, whether embedded or external.

The Digital-Physical Link

The integrity of Phygitals depends on maintaining a strict 1:1 correspondence between digital collectibles and physical cards. This is enforced through several mechanisms:

• One-to-one backing: Every digital collectible on the platform corresponds to exactly one physical card in vault custody. No digital collectible exists without a corresponding physical card.

• Immutable metadata: Each digital collectible's on-chain metadata includes identifying information that links it to a specific physical card (grading company, certification number, grade, card details).

• Retirement on redemption: When an owner claims (redeems) their physical card, the corresponding digital collectible is permanently retired and removed from circulation. This ensures that a redeemed physical card cannot be traded digitally.

• Minting on intake: New digital collectibles are only created when a corresponding physical card is received, authenticated, and deposited into vault custody. There is no mechanism to create unbacked digital collectibles.

Provable Fairness System

For features involving randomized outcomes (pack openings, Pack Parties), Phygitals uses a cryptographic provably fair system to ensure that neither the platform nor the user can manipulate results:

• Commit-reveal scheme: Before each randomized event, the server commits to a seed by publishing its cryptographic hash. This locks in the server's contribution to the outcome before the event occurs.

• Client seed: A unique client seed (specific to you and the transaction) is combined with the server seed to determine the outcome.

• Public algorithm: The algorithm that combines the seeds to produce results is publicly disclosed, allowing independent verification.

• Post-event verification: After the event, the server seed is revealed. Anyone can hash it and verify it matches the previously committed hash, then re-run the algorithm to confirm the result.

For complete details including step-by-step verification instructions, see our Provable Fairness documentation.

Security

Phygitals employs multiple layers of security to protect users and their assets:

• Authentication: User authentication is handled by Privy, supporting email, social login (Apple, Google), SMS verification, and external wallet connection.

• Wallet security: Embedded wallet private keys are managed by Privy using distributed key management. Phygitals never has access to your complete private key.

• Payment security: All credit card transactions are processed by PCI-compliant third-party payment processors. Phygitals does not store credit card numbers.

• Physical security: Vault facilities are equipped with 24/7 surveillance, access controls, alarm systems, and fire suppression. See our Vault & Storage documentation for details.

• Insurance: Physical cards are insured through our vault partners' insurance programs against loss, theft, and damage while in vault custody.

Contact

For technical questions about the Phygitals platform, please contact us:

• Support: [email protected]

• General inquiries: [email protected]