What the Suede IP Registry Is (and Is Not)

The Suede IP Registry lets a creator fingerprint a finished file, sign a claim about it with their wallet, list the people who contributed, and file that record with a public timestamp on Base or Avalanche mainnet — for about a cent in network gas.

That is the whole product. Everything else in these docs is detail on how to do it well and how to read the records that result.

Every record filed through the registry has four parts:

• An exact-file fingerprint (asset hash). A cryptographic hash of the specific file you uploaded. Change one sample of audio or one pixel of an image and the hash changes completely, so the record is tied to that exact version, not to the song or artwork in the abstract.
• A wallet-signed creator claim. The statement “the holder of this wallet claims this work” is signed with the registering wallet’s private key. Nobody can file that signature except whoever controls the wallet.
• A contributor record. The wallets and split percentages the registrant declared for co-writers, performers, producers, and other contributors at the time of filing.
• A public timestamp. The block time of the transaction. It establishes that this exact file, this claim, and this contributor list existed no later than that moment.

Registration also mints an IP Account — a specialized NFT that represents the work on-chain and can hold licenses and receive revenue in future versions of the system.

Read narrowly, a registration proves three things, and proves them well:

• A file with this exact fingerprint existed no later than the recorded timestamp.
• The holder of a specific wallet publicly claimed that file, on the record, at that time.
• The registrant declared a specific set of contributors and splits at that time, before any dispute made memories convenient.

These are useful facts. If a question about a work ever turns into a disagreement, a timestamped, signed, third-party-checkable record of who claimed what and when is materially better than a folder of undated files and a group chat.

This part matters more than the sales pitch, so here it is without hedging. A Suede registration:

• Is not copyright registration. It is not a filing with the U.S. Copyright Office or any government body, and it does not grant the legal benefits those filings carry (such as eligibility for statutory damages in U.S. infringement suits).
• Does not create rights. Copyright in most jurisdictions exists from the moment a work is fixed. The registry records a claim about a work; it cannot manufacture ownership you do not already have.
• Does not verify the claim is true. The registry checks the signature and files the record. It does not — and cannot — check whether the person signing actually wrote the song, cleared the sample, or had permission from co-writers.
• Does not clear rights or resolve disputes. If two people register conflicting claims, the registry shows both records and their timestamps. Resolving who is right is a matter for the parties, their contracts, and if necessary the courts.
• Does not guarantee any legal outcome. A court or counterparty may find a registry record persuasive as evidence. Whether and how much weight it gets is entirely up to them.

The full version of this list lives at Limitations. If you read one other page, read that one.

Because organized, timestamped evidence is worth having before you need it. Most rights problems for independent artists are not courtroom dramas — they are takedown disputes, split disagreements two years after a session, licensing conversations where nobody can find the stems, and distributors asking questions nobody wrote down answers to. A registration does not win those arguments for you. It means you show up to them with a dated, signed record instead of a shrug.

It also makes your catalog legible to systems, not just people: the record is public, machine-readable, and verifiable by anyone without asking your permission or trusting your database.