NFT certificates
Real art by real people, each piece with an NFT certificate
5 min read · Updated 2026-10-30
ChainChum is a marketplace for real things made by real people: paintings, drawings, prints, ceramics, photography, family art and digital downloads. It is not a place to buy and sell NFTs. On ChainChum the NFT is a certificate of authenticity: a public, permanent record of who made a piece and who owns it, attached to the artwork you buy.
What makes ChainChum different from crypto NFT marketplaces is everything you don't need: no crypto wallet, no coins, no gas fees and no seed phrase. You sign in with email, pay by card and ChainChum keeps the record for you.
Rolling out: browsing, shops and listings are live today. Card checkout and on-chain NFT certificates switch on with the first pilot sales.
How a ChainChum NFT certificate works
- An artist lists a real piece. Photos are screened for AI-generated images, and the seller is a verified adult.
- The seller certifies it. A one-time $1 certificate fee, taken from the work's first sale, covers minting its NFT certificate on Base, a low-cost Ethereum network. ChainChum pays the network fee.
- A buyer pays by card for the artwork, with Apple Pay or Google Pay if they prefer. The artist keeps 95% of the price. The certificate is never sold on its own: it transfers to the buyer with the piece.
- The buyer gets the certificate: a PDF by email, a QR code on the packing slip, a public verify page, and the token itself in a wallet ChainChum keeps for them.
- The record follows the piece, free. Every later ChainChum sale, resale and inheritance is added to the same certificate at no charge, and the artist earns a royalty on every ChainChum resale.
See the full picture, step by step, in How ChainChum works.
Why an NFT for the certificate?
A paper certificate can be lost, copied or forged. An NFT can't be edited after the fact, and anyone can check it without asking us. ChainChum stores a content hash, a fingerprint of the artwork's details and photos, inside each NFT record. If anyone changed the title, the edition number or the photos, the fingerprint would stop matching.
That is the same idea collectors pay certificate services for every year, here for one fee per work, with the provenance kept up to date for free.
Your NFT, your wallet, your choice
ChainChum keeps a wallet for every owner, so there is nothing to install and no phrase to write down. If you already use a wallet, you can export the token to it at any time, and ChainChum pays the fee. Once it is in your own wallet it is a standard ERC-721 token: you can hold it, move it or trade it on other NFT marketplaces like any other.
ChainChum itself never buys, sells or trades tokens, and a certificate is never listed for sale here. A transfer made outside ChainChum shows on the verify page as transferred off-platform until the new holder claims it, so the record stays honest either way.
ChainChum compared with crypto NFT marketplaces
| Crypto NFT marketplaces | ChainChum | |
|---|---|---|
| What you buy | Usually a digital file or a token on its own | A real artwork or a digital download; its NFT certificate comes with it |
| What the NFT costs | Minting and gas, paid by you | One $1 certificate fee per work, taken from its first sale; gas paid by ChainChum |
| How you pay | Crypto from your own wallet | Card, Apple Pay or Google Pay |
| Wallet needed | Yes | No; ChainChum keeps one for you, export is optional |
| Trading tokens | On the marketplace | Not on ChainChum; export the token and trade it elsewhere if you wish |
| Human-made checks | Rarely | Every photo screened, every seller a verified adult |
| Seller fee | Varies | One flat 5% on what sells |
Guides
- What is an NFT? A plain-English guide
- NFT certificates of authenticity
- Buying art with an NFT certificate by card
- How to sell your art with an NFT certificate
- Physical art NFTs: real art with a digital twin
- Family art NFTs: keep and sell your children's art safely
- How to verify an NFT certificate
- How your certificate is kept: the contract, trust and privacy
Questions
Is ChainChum an NFT marketplace?
No. ChainChum is an art marketplace. Every work sold here comes with an NFT certificate of authenticity recorded on a public blockchain, but you buy the artwork, not the token, and NFTs are never bought or sold on their own on ChainChum.
What does the NFT certificate cost?
The seller pays a one-time $1 certificate fee per work, shown before they publish and taken from the work's first sale. Buyers pay nothing extra for it, and every later sale, resale or inheritance through ChainChum is recorded on the certificate at no charge.
Do I need crypto to get the NFT certificate?
No. You pay in dollars by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. ChainChum mints the NFT, pays the network fee and keeps it in a wallet for you, so you never need coins or a seed phrase.
Which blockchain does ChainChum use?
Base, a low-cost Ethereum layer-2 network. Each certificate is a standard ERC-721 token, so it stays verifiable on public block explorers independently of ChainChum.
Can I move my NFT to my own wallet or sell it elsewhere?
Yes. An export option under your certificates sends the token to a wallet you control, and ChainChum pays the fee. From there you can trade it on other NFT marketplaces. ChainChum does not host token trading; to sell the artwork here, you relist the piece and its certificate goes with it.
Are ChainChum NFTs AI-generated art?
No. ChainChum does not allow AI-generated listings. Every photo is screened and questionable listings are checked by a person before they go live.