Heirloom Mode: provenance cards, chain of custody, and resale royalties
Most things sold online are meant to be used up and replaced. Heirloom Mode is for the opposite kind of object: the piece built to outlast its first owner. It gives that piece a public, numbered record of where it came from and who has held it, plus a small royalty back to the maker every time it resells.
July 3, 2026 · 6 min read
What a provenance card actually is
When a seller marks a listing as an heirloom, Njuru mints a provenance card: a serial number, a cryptographic hash of the card's details, and a public page at njuru.com/heirloom/[serial] that anyone can look up. The hash means the card's facts, once minted, cannot be quietly edited later without it showing.
Chain of custody, in the open
The provenance page logs the piece's life as it happens: manufactured, sold, resold, repaired, restored, authenticated. Each event carries a date and, where relevant, a short note. A buyer considering a resold heirloom can read that history instead of taking a seller's word for it.
The resale royalty
Every provenance card carries a royalty percentage, set when the card is minted. When the piece resells through Njuru, that percentage of the sale returns automatically to the original maker, not just the most recent seller. It is the same idea galleries use for fine art, applied to anything built to last: furniture, instruments, tools, jewelry.
Why this matters for buyers, not just makers
A provenance card is also a trust signal. It tells a buyer the object was made with the expectation of lasting long enough to change hands, and that its history is checkable rather than asserted. For a maker, it turns a one-time sale into an ongoing relationship with everything they have ever built.
- A public, tamper-evident serial and hash for each piece.
- A visible chain of custody: made, sold, resold, repaired, restored.
- An automatic royalty back to the original maker on every resale.
Common questions
- Does every listing get a provenance card?
- No. Heirloom Mode is opt-in, for sellers making durable, made-to-last pieces. A card is minted when the seller marks a listing as an heirloom.
- Can anyone look up a provenance card?
- Yes. Every card has a public page at njuru.com/heirloom/[serial]. Sellers and buyers can also embed a small badge linking to it on their own site.
- What happens to the royalty if the maker's business closes?
- The royalty is tied to the maker's account on Njuru. As long as that account exists and can receive payouts, resale royalties continue to reach it.
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