AI-Free Certification Project
AI-Free Certification Project operates MindStar™, a blockchain-backed certification platform that lets individual creators declare creative works as human-made under a published standard, with certificates anchored on the Polygon blockchain. It serves visual artists, writers, musicians, and videographers globally via a self-serve credit-based pricing model.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2023
- HeadquartersHouston, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingSoftware
What AI-Free Certification Project does
AI-Free Certification Project, LLC operates MindStar™, a blockchain-backed certification platform that allows individual creators to formally declare creative works as human-made under a published MindStar™ Standard. The platform, headquartered in Houston, TX and founded in 2023, issues Certificates of Conformity anchored on the Polygon blockchain with SHA-256 client-side cryptographic hashing of uploaded files. It supports four certificate types — Visual, Audio, Literary, and Video — plus a YouTube integration for video content and a public Verification Vault for third-party authenticity checks. The company is led by three co-founders (Seth Jaffe, Onur Tatlıdil, and Faik Sevim) and operates as a privately held Texas LLC with no disclosed outside funding.
The business model is a self-serve, credit-based unit sale with no subscription. Credits are sold in four tiers — Starter ($3.99/5), Creator ($6.99/10), Professional ($14.99/25), and Studio ($24.99/50) — with effective per-certificate prices ranging from $0.80 down to $0.50 at the high-volume tier and $0.99 for single certificates. Go-to-market combines product-led growth (instant self-certification in under 5 minutes) with an API-first layer targeting studios and platforms requiring bulk certification. Distribution includes direct website self-service, an API/OEM channel, and a channel partnership with Verify My Writing for written-work AI-detection review. Target customers are individual creators and SMBs (visual artists, writers, musicians, videographers) across 50+ countries, with select enterprise use cases (e.g., a SAP Signavio product demo video). To date, the platform has issued 10,000+ certificates and earned media coverage in Forbes and 60+ other outlets.
AI-Free Certification Project firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- AI-Free Certification Project
- Legal name
- AI Free Certification Project, LLC
- Website
- https://aifreecert.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2023
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- AI-Free Certification Project operates MindStar™, a blockchain-backed certification platform that lets individual creators declare creative works as human-made under a published standard, with certificates anchored on the Polygon blockchain. It serves visual artists, writers, musicians, and videographers globally via a self-serve credit-based pricing model.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
AI-Free Certification Project industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Content Authentication & Certification
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (5132)
- SIC
- Services-Educational Services (8200)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Decentralized Identity (DID) & Verifiable Credentials (BPAMAEAJ)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Certification & Credentialed Creator Programs (MPACALAI), Certification & Licensing Exam Management Platforms (EDAFADAG)
Keywords
Where AI-Free Certification Project is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Houston
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
AI-Free Certification Project business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Credit-based Certificate Purchases: Users purchase credit packs to create certificates. One credit equals one certificate. Credits never expire. No subscription required. Pricing tiers offer volume discounts from $0.80/cert (5-pack) down to $0.50/cert (50-pack).
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Starter Pack - $3.99 for 5 Credits ($0.80/cert) |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Creator Pack - $6.99 for 10 Credits ($0.70/cert) |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Professional Pack - $14.99 for 25 Credits ($0.60/cert) |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Studio Pack - $24.99 for 50 Credits ($0.50/cert) |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels7 records
AI-Free Certification Project product offering
Product offeringCore offering
AI-Free Certification Project operates the MindStar™ platform, a blockchain-backed certification system where creators formally declare their creative works as human-made under the MindStar™ Standard. Each declaration is anchored on the Polygon blockchain as a tamper-proof Certification of Conformity, using SHA-256 client-side hashing to generate immutable proof while preserving original file privacy. The platform supports visual, audio, literary, and video content and issues a public verification page plus QR-enabled badge for each certified work.
Product overview
AI-Free Certification Project operates the MindStar™ platform — the world's first blockchain-backed AI-free certification ecosystem. The core product is the MindStar™ certification platform (AI-Free Cert), which issues Certificates of Conformity for human-created creative works. The platform supports four certificate types: Visual, Audio, Literary, and Video certificates. Pricing operates on a credit-based model with four tiers (Starter, Creator, Professional, Studio). The platform integrates with YouTube, Polygon blockchain, and offers a RESTful API (Studio tier). A partnership with Verify My Writing extends AI-detection scanning for written works. All certificates are anchored on the Polygon blockchain with SHA-256 cryptographic proof, and include customizable badges, watermarked specimens, printable certificates, and a public Verification Vault for third-party authenticity checks.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- AI-Free Cert (MindStar™) Self Certification Platform A self-serve certification platform where human creators formally declare their work as AI-free under the MindStar™ Standard and receive a blockchain-anchored Certificate of Conformity. Includes a public verification page, customizable badge, watermarked specimen, printable certificate, and analytics dashboard. Targets individual creators across visual, audio, literary, and video content types.
- Visual Certificate A certificate type for certifying visual works including photographs, digital art, graphics, and digital illustrations as human-created. Supports watermarked specimen uploads and blockchain verification; targeted at visual artists, photographers, and illustrators.
- Audio Certificate A certificate type for certifying audio works including music tracks, narrated audiobooks, and sound effects as human-created. Supports audio specimen uploads with playback on the public certificate page; targeted at musicians, audio engineers, and narrators.
- Literary Certificate A certificate type for certifying written works including essays, articles, and other text-based creative content as human-authored. Can be combined with the Verify My Writing AI-detection scan; targeted at writers, journalists, essayists, and authors.
- Video Certificate A certificate type for certifying video content and motion graphics as human-created, with native YouTube integration that links any YouTube video to a creator's declaration with timestamped, tamper-proof verification. Targeted at videographers, content creators, and motion graphics artists.
- MindStar RESTful API A RESTful API that allows developers to programmatically create and manage MindStar™ certificates, retrieve certificate details and download URLs, list account certificates, and monitor credit balance. Each certificate creation consumes one credit; targets studios, agencies, and platforms needing bulk certification.
Quantifiable outcome
- 10,000+ certificates issued and growing daily
- +4 more outcomes
Companies that use AI-Free Certification Project
Customer profileNamed customers5 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
AI-Free Certification Project technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration4 records
AI capability5 records
Feature8 records
AI-Free Certification Project partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
One partnership is on record.
- Verify My WritingcoreMindStar partners with Verify My Writing to offer writers complementary AI-authenticity verification. MindStar is declaration-based while VMW focuses on written work through scan, score, and writing-specific authenticity credentials. VMW seal attaches to documents and verifies authenticity for editors, agents, publishers, and producers. MindStar members receive personal 25% coupon for VMW services.
Scale indicators6 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
AI-Free Certification Project competitors and assessment
Company assessmentEmerging players
- Originality.ai: AI content detection tool focused on written content for publishers and content marketers. Addresses the same underlying buyer problem (proving human authorship) but via technical detection rather than self-declaration, complementing MindStar's value proposition.
- Hive Moderation: AI-generated content detection API for images, video, and text used by platforms and marketplaces. Competes for the platform-level integration tier that MindStar's API targets, with detection-based rather than declaration-based verification.
- Copyleaks: AI content detection and plagiarism platform used by enterprises and educational institutions. Competes for the same creator/publisher wallet share around content authenticity verification, with stronger enterprise distribution.
- Sensity AI: Deepfake and synthetic media detection platform focused on visual content authentication. Targets a similar 'human-vs-AI' authenticity use case but via technical detection rather than self-declaration, particularly for video and images.
- Verify My Writing: AI-detection service for written content that scans, scores, and issues authenticity seals. Active partnership with MindStar (25% member discount) and serves overlapping creators, but takes a forensic-detection rather than declaration-based approach.
Others
- Starling Lab: Stanford/USC research initiative using blockchain and cryptographic authentication to verify digital media authenticity. Adjacent academic-grade peer in the content provenance space, validating the category but not a direct commercial competitor.
- Witness (guardian project): Human rights organization that helps activists verify and authenticate video and photo evidence using cryptographic tools. Adjacent thematically — content provenance for accountability — but operates in nonprofit space rather than commercial certification.
Direct peers
- Numbers Protocol: Blockchain-based digital media provenance platform that registers and verifies the authenticity of images, videos, and audio. Similar tech stack (blockchain anchoring) and target market (creators seeking authenticity proof), making it a direct peer.
- Truepic: Provides cryptographic content authenticity and provenance verification for images and videos, with blockchain-anchored certificates. Closest direct competitor in the content certification space, with a focus on enterprise and insurance use cases.
Broad incumbents
- Adobe Content Credentials (C2PA): Industry coalition led by Adobe that embeds cryptographic provenance directly into creative tools like Photoshop and Lightroom. Directly competes with MindStar's blockchain-backed content certification, with vastly greater distribution via Creative Cloud's 30M+ subscribers.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
AI-Free Certification Project social profiles
Digital presenceAI-Free Certification Project financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
AI-Free Certification Project leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
AI-Free Certification Project funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
AI-Free Certification Project M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about AI-Free Certification Project
What does AI-Free Certification Project do?
AI-Free Certification Project operates the MindStar™ platform, a blockchain-backed certification system where creators formally declare their creative works as human-made under the MindStar™ Standard. Each declaration is anchored on the Polygon blockchain as a tamper-proof Certification of Conformity, using SHA-256 client-side hashing to generate immutable proof while preserving original file privacy. The platform supports visual, audio, literary, and video content and issues a public verification page plus QR-enabled badge for each certified work.
Is AI-Free Certification Project a public or private company?
AI-Free Certification Project is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was AI-Free Certification Project founded?
AI-Free Certification Project was founded in 2023. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is AI-Free Certification Project based?
AI-Free Certification Project is headquartered in Houston, United States, in the North America region.
How does AI-Free Certification Project make money?
One revenue line is on record: credit-based Certificate Purchases.
Who are AI-Free Certification Project's main competitors?
Emerging players on record are Originality.ai, Hive Moderation, Copyleaks, Sensity AI and Verify My Writing. Others are Starling Lab and Witness (guardian project). Direct peers are Numbers Protocol and Truepic. Adobe Content Credentials (C2PA) is listed as a broad incumbent.
Does AI-Free Certification Project have an API?
Yes. RESTful API allowing developers to programmatically create and manage AI-free certificates. Uses JSON for requests/responses, requires API key authentication. Rate limits: 60 requests per minute and 1000 requests per day per API key. Each certificate creation via API consumes 1 credit from the account balance. Developer documentation is at www.aifreecert.com/api-docs.
What industry is AI-Free Certification Project in?
AI-Free Certification Project's product category is Content Authentication & Certification. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAMAEAJ, Decentralized Identity (DID) & Verifiable Credentials, with a secondary code of MPACALAI, Certification & Credentialed Creator Programs. Its NAICS code is 5132 and its SIC code is 8200.