ChainChum Release Notes

For buyers

How your certificate is kept. A new page, On-chain trust, shows the certificate contract on Base with links to its public, verified source code on Basescan; who can issue, move or pause certificates; what's recorded on the blockchain (a fingerprint and pseudonymous addresses) and what never is (names, emails, prices, anything about a child); and how to check a certificate yourself. Each certificate page links to it.

For sellers

The same page explains what your certificate records about your work and how anyone can check it, so you can point collectors to it.

Behind the scenes

The certificate contract's source code is published and verified on Basescan, on Base and on the Base Sepolia test network.

The page reads the contract's current code from the blockchain, so any future upgrade shows up there by itself.

Fewer outside calls: Clerk's sign-in telemetry is switched off.

Our test suite pays with Stripe's test card again after Stripe changed its checkout page, and now proves that cancelling a lesson refunds every seat.

For buyers

We say what's live. Until buying opens, the home page and How it works say "Selling opens soon", and that certificates are recorded by ChainChum today and go on the Base network once on-chain issuing starts. The note goes away by itself when both are live.

Explore says "Nothing listed yet" when there's nothing to show at all, instead of asking you to try another filter.

For sellers

You can open a shop and list your work now; buying starts shortly, and every work page can email visitors when it does.

Task cards no longer prepare shipping or rejection forms for tasks that don't have them.

Behind the scenes

Buying stays switched off unless an operator turns it on; a missing setting now means off.

The certificate check on each certificate page is set up for the Base network, where ChainChum's certificate contract lives.

Tighter security headers: the MCP server for AI assistants sends the same protections as the website, the website's security policy drops sources it only needs in development, and the API's technical map is no longer published on the live site.

Release titles no longer show quote marks, here, in the feed and on GitHub.

For buyers

The header keeps up with you. If you sign in or out in one tab, other ChainChum tabs you already had open now update their header on their own, instead of showing "Sign in" until you reload.

For sellers

Your works can be found. Our robots.txt asked search engines to skip every address starting with "/s", which also hid the sitemap that lists your works, shops and certificates. Search engines can now read it, so new public works are discovered sooner.

Behind the scenes

Private pages (account, admin, sign-in, join codes, sticker scans) are still kept out of search; each rule now covers only that page and what sits under it.

The certificate of authenticity contract is deployed on the Base network. Certificates keep being recorded at ChainChum and are not written on-chain yet; we'll say here when that starts.

For buyers

Menus that fit your phone. Explore's categories no longer scroll sideways: on a phone one button shows the category you're in and opens every choice at once; on a tablet or computer the categories wrap onto as many lines as they need. The How it works shortcuts, a shop's collections and a work's photo thumbnails wrap the same way.

For sellers

Your certificates can be found. Each public work's certificate of authenticity is now listed for search engines alongside the work and your shop, so searching for a certificate code or "NFT certificate" can lead straight to it.

Admin's sections and the review queue's filters use the same phone-friendly menu.

Behind the scenes

The sitemap leaves out works and shops whose pages aren't public (private works, suspended accounts), so search engines never meet a page that answers "not found".

Microsoft Clarity (heatmaps and session replays) joins Google Analytics, with the same consent: on public pages only, with all text masked. The Privacy Policy says what it sees.

For buyers

Coming soon: give a piece to someone. From My collection, you'll be able to offer a piece and its certificate to anyone by email; they accept with an account in their own name, and the certificate shows its new holder.

A collector name on the certificates you hold, if you want one (Me › Profile).

Corrections you agree to. If an artist got a detail wrong, you see the old and new side by side and decide; the earlier version stays in the certificate's history.

Tell me when it's available: one email when a sold-out piece is back, or when selling opens.

A clear returns, refunds and cancellations policy at /refunds, linked from every buy box and from checkout, including what a refund does to a certificate.

Parcels show a link to the carrier's tracking page.

For sellers

Propose a correction to a sold piece's title, medium, year or size; each holder agrees or keeps theirs.

Teachers: cancel a lesson and refund every family at once; ship a kit with a lesson; sell recorded lessons (ChainChum reviews every video first); sell the paper originals of a class to each child's own parent; families who book can join the class gallery in one tick.

Art Vault photos are private now: only you can see them, and listing one makes a separate public copy.

Me › Tasks shows what waits on you: kits to send, originals to hand over, corrections to answer.

Behind the scenes

The web app now fronts the API, so every browser call stays on the site's own address.

New workflows for refunds, kits, originals, recorded lessons, gifts, corrections, print jobs, parcels and notifications, each with its own documented states.

The foundations for parcel tracking, so live tracking and postage can follow next sprint.

A second sign-in factor for certificate corrections is built and switched off until it is available on our sign-in provider's plan.

Printed certificates with tamper-evident QR stickers are built and stay switched off until paper certificates start; until then your certificate is a PDF you download from My collection.

Security work ahead of the chainchum.app launch, with selling still switched off: a stricter content security policy, a bot check on Tell me when it's available, and checkout closed to places our payment provider can't serve.

For buyers

Nothing new to see: this release keeps the app's building blocks up to date, including sign-in, payments and the web framework.

For sellers

Nothing new to see: payouts, checkout, the photo check and email run on updated libraries, with no change to how they work.

Behind the scenes

Two security alerts fixed: a sign-in library on the server (oauthlib 4.0.1) and a development tool used by the code checker.

Routine updates to the web app (Next.js, Clerk, Tailwind and others) and the API (Stripe, Resend, Anthropic, Azure and others).

Email bounces and complaints are now handled in production too.

Browser tests run on the team's own machine before each change and after each deploy, instead of on hosted build minutes.

For buyers

Online lessons: book a seat in a teacher's video lesson. Your order page and email carry the private video link and a class code for your child's drawings, and a reminder arrives an hour before. If the teacher changes the link, you hear about it.

Send your child's drawing to the teacher from your phone after an online lesson. Children never sign in.

A teacher's note under your child's drawings: a few words on what went well and up to three skill stamps, with a running tally per child. Praise for the drawing, never a grade. Download all now includes a notes file.

Lesson cards in Explore show the day and start time, and every lesson time names its time zone, on the page, in the email and in the calendar file.

New to ChainChum? Pick what you came to do (find art, sell your art, open a family art shop, teach, join your child's class) and Me shows the next step for each. Add another goal any time.

Signing up on an iPhone no longer zooms in, and the terms and privacy policy open from the tick boxes before you agree.

Every page has a way back: one thumb-size link to the page above on phones, the whole trail on wider screens.

For sellers

Teachers no longer need to open a shop to run classes: a teacher page and one Stripe account cover teaching and selling.

Sell a lesson as in person or online, with a time zone picker, and link it to one of your classes so each paid seat gets its own class code. Drawings families send land in your trays already tagged.

Add a note and skill stamps to each drawing before Send to parents, or later. A note that names or ages a child is turned away.

Labels print on US Letter or A4, for new codes only if you like, and you can take back a drawing you already sent.

Listing photos can come from your photo library, not only the camera.

Eight new step-by-step help guides, with a Classes and lessons section.

Behind the scenes

Me is now a hub with its own page for each form: profile, shop, settings and account.

Automated browser tests at phone size run on every change, and a smoke run checks DEV with the real sign-in, payment page and photo check after each deploy.

A race that could fail a new account's first requests is fixed.

For buyers

Parents: scan the QR code on your child's take-home slip, or type its code, and join the class in one step. Your child's drawings appear under My child's art the same day, visible only to you. Delete any drawing, download them all, or leave the class at any time.

Book a seat in a teacher's lesson like any other purchase. Your order page shows when and where, and the confirmation email has a calendar file.

Explore has a Lessons filter, and shops that run classes show a Teacher badge.

A fresh ChainChum icon for your home screen, with a themed version on Android. Class pages and the gallery are built for phones first: tap a drawing to see it full screen and save it. Buttons are thumb-size on every phone and tablet, in portrait or on its side.

For sellers

Teachers: verify your identity with Stripe once, then open Studio › Classes. Create a class, print the labels (a roster, a slip per child, sticker sheets), and after each lesson photograph the drawings with their stickers. Each photo goes to that child's own parent; anything the check flags waits in your trays, and you can ask ChainChum when you're unsure.

Sell a lesson: a dated seat at a place, paid through checkout. You're paid the day after the lesson.

On your phone, tap a class photo to see it large and act on it there; the trays fill in on their own while photos are checked. Tag a drawing with one tap on the child's number, and on a wide tablet the roster stays beside the trays.

Payouts shows whether Stripe has verified your identity, with a Check again button. Every verified seller now shows a ✓.

Reminders, at most one every three days, when a shop has no payouts, a draft isn't live, or a checkout was left. One click turns them off.

Behind the scenes

A workflow engine for every flow with people in the loop: class photos, the daily notice to parents, closing a class, lesson seats, reminders and listing review all run on it, with timers, retries that fail safe, an audit trail and generated docs.

Class photos live in private storage with location data removed before they are stored, and only the teacher, the child's parent and ChainChum staff can open them.

Google Analytics with a consent banner: on by default in the United States, ask-first everywhere else, Global Privacy Control honoured. Private pages report their page type, never their address.

For buyers

Every original, print and handmade piece you buy now comes with a certificate of authenticity. It appears on your order page the moment you pay, and a PDF arrives by email once it is recorded on Base.

Open any certificate at its page, or scan its QR code (on your order page, the certificate page or the PDF), and read it in plain words: who made it, when it was issued, who holds it now, and whether the record is unchanged. The technical details are one tap away for anyone who wants them.

Your certificates live under Me › Certificates. If you return a piece, the certificate goes back to the artist and your page says so.

For sellers

Publishing issues the certificate for you; nothing changes in how you publish. The $1 certificate fee per work comes out of your first sale of that work; if it never sells, you pay nothing.

Fix a title or a photo before the first sale and the certificate updates itself. After a sale those details are fixed, because a buyer holds the certificate.

Your editor and each sale show the certificate and where it went.

Behind the scenes

The ChainChum certificate contract on Base Sepolia: certificates only ChainChum can move, so they always follow the record. Signing keys live in a hardware-backed vault, created with a two-person ceremony.

A transaction ledger that sends in order, replaces stuck transactions, and alerts when one fails, sticks or the relayer runs low.

Release notes at /releases, with an RSS feed and a JSON export. The footer shows the version.

For buyers

Follow the shops you like and get a notification when they list something new; like pieces to find them again.

A notifications inbox with preferences for what reaches you, in the app and by push.

For sellers

Your followers hear about new work the day you publish it.

Digital downloads are tested end to end: watermarked previews, a licence on every sale, and links that expire.

Behind the scenes

Monitoring that sees every request and log line, with alerts for errors, slow pages, a stuck job queue, failed payment webhooks, backups and the budget.

A nightly database backup that can't be overwritten, and a restore drill that passed on DEV.

An ops page for admins with health, the job backlog, webhook failures and the latest backups.

For buyers

Listings that a reviewer has checked carry on as normal; anything that looks AI-generated or names a child waits for a person before it goes live.

Report a listing or a shop from its page; a reviewer looks at every report.

For sellers

If a listing needs changes, you get an email and see the reviewer's reason in Studio, then fix it and send it back with one tap.

The listing assistant suggests a title, medium, tags and a description from your photos. You edit and accept; nothing is published for you.

Behind the scenes

An admin console: the review queue, approve or reject with a reason, reports, suspensions, an audit log and feature flags. Roles come from the sign-in provider.

A Claude Haiku image check that can send a photo to review but never block it.