The internet has a storage problem. Not because we don’t have enough space; storage is (relatively) cheap. What it has is an authenticity problem, with duplicates everywhere. Back in 2013, estimates suggested that nearly 30% of the internet was duplicate content, and that was before all the low-quality AI-generated stuff started flooding the web. We’re not short on file storage solutions, whether centralized or decentralized, but rather the clone squatters that are just taking up space. This is especially true in 3D printing and 3D scanning, where the difference between an original design and a copy can mean intellectual property theft and brand damage. That’s if you even find out about the theft. The interwebs is a big place, and a good analogy in real life would be randomly spotting your stolen bike while on vacation abroad. Sure, it can happen, but the chances are low. For a large multinational company with whole departments dedicated to this, the likelihood is higher. For the average person, though, the chances are slim. So, the question becomes, how do you stop a copycat before they even hit upload for everyone? Where Things Stand Today Where Things Stand Today We’re not short on file storage solutions. In fact, there’s an entire ecosystem of both centralized and decentralized platforms where you can dump data. Dropbox, Google Drive, and iCloud made it effortless and mainstream for individuals and businesses. Then came the decentralized wave with IPFS and Arweave. You can store Terabytes of data that you can retrieve years or even decades later. Whether anything will actually last for centuries is, of course, still to be proven. Most people probably don’t care, since they won’t be around to check anyway. This is like when you inherit a photo album from your grandparents, and the main question that goes through your head is “Who are these people?” Still, people have always loved leaving something behind; a mark that says I was here or maybe even we were here. The oldest cave drawings and handprints are proof of that impulse, messages carried across not just centuries or millennia, but sometimes a full myriad of years; in fact, some date back as far as 73,000 years ago. In a sense, those handprints may be the world’s first “signatures.” While they weren’t names, they were personal marks, unique stencils that tied the artwork to an individual human. Thousands of years later, early civilisations made the leap to inscribing names on pottery, bricks, and tools. Over time, this evolved into the familiar practice of signing our names, a tradition of authorship and identity that continues to this day. Take IPFS, it provides strong immutability guarantees. Once a file is stored, its hash makes sure it can’t be tampered with. Sounds great, until you realize the system doesn’t care if the same file has already been uploaded. If Alice uploads a 3D model of a chair, and Bob uploads the same file, IPFS simply gives it a new hash. Now, there are two “Chairs.” Arweave takes a different approach by focusing on permanence. Your file isn’t just immutable; it’s locked into history forever. But permanence doesn’t equal provenance. If two people upload the same design, Arweave faithfully preserves both. It doesn’t matter if one of them is the actual creator and the other is a counterfeiter who came five minutes later; both files live forever, side by side, indistinguishable from each other. Will Alice care in 100 years? Probably not. But legacy does matter to a lot of people. NFTs tried to tackle this problem by focusing on provenance. The idea: attach a token ID to a file or a link, and whoever minted it first can claim ownership. But in practice, NFTs only enforce uniqueness at the token level, not the content level. Anyone can mint an NFT pointing to the exact same model or image. The blockchain says each token is unique, but the underlying files? That’s why the ‘right click save’ meme will not be forgotten any time soon. Have a look at popular collections like CryptoPunks or BAYC and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Even corporate-backed solutions like the Content Authenticity Initiative (Adobe, Microsoft, etc.) are metadata-driven. They embed creator information, timestamps, and editing history into the file. It’s useful until the metadata gets stripped or altered. Even when authentication protocols are applied, they’re siloed and fragmented. Maybe Platform A has strong duplicate detection. But nothing stops an imitator from simply re-uploading the same file to Platform B or C, where the checks don’t exist. Your “protection” only works within the walled garden that provided it. Outside, it’s the wild west again. Without a system that says “this object has already been uploaded, and no infringers allowed,” we’re left playing an endless game of whack-a-mole. Creators chase infringers across platforms. Marketplaces fight takedown wars. Users are stuck guessing which version of a file is the real one. Enter 3DPass: Proof of Scan Enter 3DPass: Proof of Scan 3DPass takes a completely different approach. Instead of treating files as dumb blobs of data that just need to be stored, it asks a more radical question. What if we actually look at the data itself? In the world of 3D files, the essence isn’t about pixels or metadata; it’s about geometry. 3DPass runs a recognition algorithm called Grid2d, which essentially slices a 3D model into multiple 2D cross-sections, analyzes their shapes, and builds a cryptographic fingerprint out of those patterns called HASH ID. Think of it like a biometric ID for digital objects. Just as your fingerprint is stable across multiple scans of your finger, the HASH ID created by Grid2d remains consistent across different scans or exports of the same object. At the same time, it’s unique enough that two different objects won’t collide. If you upload an object, it’s registered on the blockchain with its HASH ID. If someone else tries to upload the same thing, even with a different filename, metadata, or small cosmetic tweaks, the system spots the duplicate and rejects it. No endless copies. No “first to market” race on centralized marketplaces. In addition, the network only stores the HASH ID, not the model itself; it works as a zero-knowledge system. Your design stays private while still being verifiably unique. This is not just a plugin. It’s the consensus mechanism itself. Bitcoin miners prove their work by solving complex mathematical computations that secure the network, but don’t serve a purpose beyond consensus itself. In contrast, 3DPass miners secure the network through Proof of Scan, where their work is tied directly to recognizing and verifying 3D objects. Instead of expending energy purely on hash calculations, the network channels that effort into authenticating digital assets at the point of creation. Another important detail is that 3DPass mining is currently restricted to CPUs. This design choice matters. By keeping mining accessible to ordinary computers, the network avoids the centralization we’ve seen with GPU and ASIC farms dominating other blockchains. It also means the overall energy footprint is much lower. The result is a system that is designed not only to be more environmentally friendly but also more decentralized, with participation open to a broader range of users. The result? A blockchain where only one of a kind can exist on the content level. A built-in trustless defence against plagiarism. A system where the energy spent on consensus doubles as a public good. Why This Matters? Why This Matters? Think about what this enables. For creators, it’s a shield against infringement. Upload your model once, and nobody else can pass it off as theirs. For buyers and collectors, it’s confidence. The object you’re purchasing is linked to a tamper-proof record, proving its origin. For open source communities, it’s transparency. Even if your work is meant to be free, provenance matters. You can trace the history of a design, see who contributed, and know which version came first. While 3DPass is starting with 3D, the approach can be extended to other mediums. The same method could apply to 2D graphics or audio. Anywhere uniqueness and provenance matter, shape or pattern-based recognition can serve as the foundation. This isn’t just theoretical hype. The 3DPass mainnet has been live since 2022. Here’s what it looks like today: File size limit: 1 MB (up from 100 kB, with improvements ongoing).Supported formats: .obj (STL for the true).Upload via mobile app or web wallet. File size limit: 1 MB (up from 100 kB, with improvements ongoing). Supported formats: .obj (STL for the true). Upload via mobile app or web wallet. If you believe creators deserve better than an endless copycat and mouse game, and if you’re tired of scrolling through straight-up plagiarism before finding something original, then it’s time to rethink how we handle digital files. 3DPass is a step towards that future. Disclosure: I contribute to the 3DPass project. The views expressed here are my own. Disclosure: I contribute to the 3DPass project. The views expressed here are my own.

The is an opinion piece based on the author’s POV and does not necessarily reflect the views of HackerNoon.

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Why File Storage Needs an Authentication Layer and How 3DPass Is Doing It for 3D

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