Decisions to make before this goes past a prototype. The first one matters most: the blockchain proves who recorded a belt and when, but it can't tell whether that person had the standing to award it.
Trust · most important
How does the global jiu-jitsu community know a gym is legit?
Right now one admin wallet (the deployer) verifies every academy. That works for a demo, but nobody will accept a single company as the gatekeeper of jiu-jitsu ranks.
- A federation verifies. The IBJJF or a national body holds the verifier key. They already keep a black-belt registry, so it's credible. But the sport is split: unaffiliated gyms, Gracie lines and no-gi organizations sit outside any one federation.
- Several verifiers; each reader picks whom to trust. Anyone can vouch for an academy: IBJJF, AJP, a national body, or an affiliation like Alliance or Checkmat. A tournament sets its own rule, such as "accept if IBJJF or our affiliation vouches." This is how browsers trust a list of certificate authorities rather than one.
- Lineage is the trust. A black belt is legitimate because of who promoted them. Seed a small set of recognized root black belts, then every later black belt traces back through "promoted by record #X" links. A fake gym can write records, but its chain ends at nobody. The contract already stores this link.
- Prove the wallet belongs to the gym. The gym posts its wallet address on its website or Instagram, or signs a message. This proves identity, not quality, so it complements the options above rather than replacing them.
Recommended
Combine lineage (3) with multiple vouchers (2), and drop the single admin. The verify page shows the path and who vouches, and each viewer decides:
Prof. Example → Head Instructor → Root black belt (recognized lineage) · IBJJF ✓ · Affiliation ✓
Trust · bootstrapping
Who are the first root black belts, and will they sign?
Lineage only works once respected black belts are on-chain and have signed their students' promotions. It needs a few well-known professors to take part early. A natural first test is Alex's own lineage: who promoted them, and would that professor record it?
Signatures
What happens when a second signer never signs?
Today a pending certificate stays pending until the named co-signer signs, or until the promoting instructor or gym owner revokes it and records it again. If the co-signer leaves the gym, they can no longer sign. Options: let pending records expire after a set time, let the owner swap in a different co-signer, or require the head instructor's signature on every black-belt promotion.
Signatures
Where do logo and signature images live?
The chain stores only each image's hash, which proves a printed image is the one on record. The images themselves need a home that lasts as long as the belts do. Options: content-addressed storage such as IPFS or Arweave (the address is the hash), the gym's own website, or a Beltchain server. In this prototype they stay in your browser.
Privacy
Should student names be public and permanent?
Anything written to the chain can never be removed. Option A stores the name in plain text, so anyone can search it, like a public belt registry. Option B stores only a hash of the name, so the paper certificate carries the name and a verifier checks that it matches. Option B is friendlier for kids and for privacy laws, but you can't look someone up by name.
Operations
Who holds the keys, and what happens when one is lost?
Instructors need a wallet to sign promotions. Losing a key means losing the ability to issue or revoke belts under that identity. Options: a shared wallet that needs several people to approve, for academies; an easy wallet app with recovery for instructors; or a service that signs on their behalf, which brings back a middleman.
Adoption
How do existing belts get on-chain?
Decades of past promotions, including instructors' own black belts needed for lineage, have to be backfilled. That needs a bulk-import path, and a way to mark a record as "recorded later" rather than written on promotion day.