Frequently Asked Questions

Learn how the registry works, configure your profile, and secure your assets on-chain.

General & Registry

How does it work?

We store a digital "title" of your bicycle on the Ethereum blockchain. This record is immutable and proves your ownership. You can transfer this title to others if you sell your bike, creating a permanent, traceable history.

Is it free?

The platform is free to use, but you will need to pay a small "gas fee" in ETH to the Ethereum network whenever you write data (register or transfer a bike). Reading data is always free.

What if my bike is stolen?

You can easily mark your bike as "Stolen" and later as "Recovered" directly from your Garage Dashboard under the active asset's details view. The underlying smart-contract support is live: anyone can call getBikeByFrame to verify a bike's status before buying, and stolen bikes are instantly blocked from being transferred until the owner marks them recovered.

Can I register multiple bikes?

Yes! You can register as many bikes as you want under a single wallet address. Each bike gets its own unique ID and history log.

Does a Bikowner registration have binding legal value?

No. Bikowner is a technological, decentralized registry based on smart contracts on Ethereum. It acts as an immutable digital receipt and certificate of existence for your asset, but does not replace or constitute an official or legal title of property issued by a government authority (such as official vehicle or land registries).

The platform serves as an excellent technological proof of registration date, history, and digital ownership for private transfers and reporting theft within the community. However, its legal validity in official disputes depends strictly on local laws, jurisdictions, and insurance policies. As developers, we provide the software infrastructure, but do not guarantee the veracity of registrations or assume liability for physical theft or ownership disputes.

How does Bikowner comply with GDPR if the blockchain is immutable?

As a fully decentralized, client-side dApp, **we do not maintain centralized databases** (we do not collect names, email addresses, or phone numbers), and we design the system applying the **Privacy by Design** principle:

  • No Personal Data On-Chain: The smart contract only stores the frame/serial number of the bicycle, the manufacturer, the model, and your wallet address (0x...). No personally identifiable information (PII) is written directly to the ledger.
  • Privacy Golden Rule: We strongly advise you **never to enter personal information** (such as full names, physical addresses, or phone numbers) in the "Add Service Record / Note" or theft report fields. These logs become permanent, public, and unalterable.
  • Right to be Forgotten: By not collecting or storing personal data on any server, we strictly align with data protection regulations. Your keys and transactions are managed entirely and autonomously by you.

What is the "Decentralized Proof of Possession" and how does it protect my purchase?

To address the problem of false ownership registrations without violating your privacy, we introduced the **Decentralized Proof of Possession (Proof of Possession)**:

When registering your bike, you can optionally select your purchase invoice, receipt, or an identifying photo from your device.

  • The browser generates a **cryptographic SHA-256 hash** of the file locally (this hash is unique to that exact file).
  • The file **is never uploaded to the internet** or sent off your device, protecting 100% of your invoice and billing data.
  • Only the resulting hash (an anonymous 64-character string) is written to the bike's history on-chain.
  • If you ever need to prove ownership in a dispute, you can present the original file of your invoice. Hashing it using any SHA-256 tool will generate the exact same hash recorded in the blockchain, proving mathematically that you possessed the document at the time of registration.