Scarcity, where an object has certain traits that make it one-of-a-kind or extremely rare, is not really a big deal in the real world. In fact, we take the unique nature of objects for granted, whether these items are soaring sculptures in public parks or messy drawings pinned to the walls of elementary school classrooms.

And thankfully, this “uniqueness” in the real world is often fairly easy to prove.

Case in point: Unless you’re a conspiracy theorist, you know that there is only one version of the Mona Lisa on the planet. It’s surrounded by scowling armed guards, and hangs inside a special fortified case in the Louvre.

So if a random person came forward and claimed to have an identical version of the masterpiece, there are plenty of antiquity experts who would be happy to confirm, down to tiny dabs of paint and micro-directions of brushstrokes, that this newly unveiled version is NOT the real thing.

These two versions might be close. They could be cousins, or at best, even siblings. But not identical twins.

There can only be one Mona Lisa.

In the online universe, however, scarcity is a very elusive concept. Because it is so easy to copy and create identical items in the online universe, there could be a million 100% identical Mona Lisas.

Just think about this common chain of events:

A professional photographer takes a stunning image of a white sand beach

The photographer uploads it to their blog

A reader sees the image, creates a high quality copy, gives no credit to the photographer, and posts it to their own popular Instagram account

Dozens of people copy the image from the Instagram account and add it to their own social pages, blogs, and even emails and text messages

The image is everywhere. It has lost its value — scarcity — and the photographer is unable to sell it

Can the photographer show that they took the original image? Yes! They can prove that on a specific date, that exact image was captured by a specific device — in this case, the photographer’s camera. And a judge would no doubt rule in the photographer’s favor.

But from a value and scarcity standpoint, proving who took the photo is the equivalent of closing the barn door after all the cows and horses and goats have run out. The image essentially belongs to the Internets.

One of the colossal challenges in the online world is bringing scarcity and uniqueness to digital objects. This is especially critical in Augmented Reality environments, where a digital layer is placed over the real world.

Photographs and artwork and writings and avatars all exist on this digital plane, but right now, they’re susceptible to casual online theft — just like the photographer’s image of the beach. Until now.

Bit Design is harnessing the power of blockchain and decentralized data to create scarcity in a world of ones and zeros and right clicks and save as. Here’s a message from Bit Design’s Chief Creative, Kevin Dunnell:

Bit Design is building decentralized applications (dApps). Here’s a very, very simplified version of what they’re trying to accomplish.

Person #1: creates a digital object and owns it

Person #2: wants this digital object

Person #1: is incentivized to relinquish ownership and leave this digital object at a physical location

Person #2: travels to the physical location and obtains ownership of the digital object

Person #1 is rewarded for person #2 traveling to this physical location

According to Kevin, Bit Design is a rapid prototype design consulting studio. The studio’s team, made up of software engineers, designers and entrepreneurs, wants to bridge the physical and digital world. But what really drives them is combining Augmented Reality with scarcity by way of elegantly designed dApps.

And XYO is happy to partner with them, to add one more unique quality to that digital Mona Lisa: location.