November 5, 2025 | DESIGN & INTERIORS
MARSHA LIPTON
words Pınar Yılmaz
A visionary mind at the intersection of art, finance, and technology, Dr. Marsha Lipton has dedicated her career to protecting the identity of physical objects in the digital realm. With experience at J.P. Morgan, an academic foundation in chemistry, and a collector’s eye, she’s redefining one of the art world’s most essential concepts: trust.
Your journey spans finance, technology, and art. What led you to found Numeraire Future Trends?
Numeraire Future Trends grew out of a lifelong fascination with science, technology, finance, and art — a convergence that felt almost inevitable. I began my career as a trader, first in London’s financial district and later on Wall Street, after earning a PhD in Physical Chemistry and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Those years taught me how to live with risk, make decisions with imperfect information, and filter meaningful signals from noise — a data-driven discipline that still anchors my work today.
Over time, I became intrigued by the transparency and traceability offered by blockchain technology. It promised a kind of digital integrity long missing from the world of physical assets. Yet I soon realized that NFTs, in their current form, fell short of that promise. They were often misunderstood and misrepresented — pointing to images stored elsewhere rather than securing or verifying the artworks themselves. The token might persist, but the image it referenced remained vulnerable.
That realization sparked a deeper ambition: to integrate technology into the art world responsibly, with the object itself at the centre. Alongside Dr. Thomas Hardjono from MIT, we developed a system where trust resides not in paper documentation but within the object itself.
When I began collecting, I noticed how fragile the foundations of authenticity and provenance could be. Documents, galleries, even artists disappear — and records fade. That’s where Numeraire was born: from the idea that trust should be embedded not in certificates, but in the very essence of the object.
Why are your Digital Product Passports and AI-based “Object Fingerprint” technology so vital for collectors?
Forgery today is far more sophisticated than ever before. AI-powered printing techniques can produce copies capable of deceiving even the most experienced experts. This threatens the very foundation of trust upon which the art world is built.
At Numeraire, we address this through Digital Product Passports reinforced by AI-driven Object Fingerprinting. Instead of paper certificates, we record the object’s unique physical characteristics — surface texture, pigment distribution, or the microscopic pattern of a metal or gemstone. These details generate a permanent digital identity stored securely on the blockchain.
Artists, galleries, and documentation may come and go, but the object’s own trace remains. In that sense, the values we safeguard today can endure confidently in tomorrow’s world.
Can this technology also be applied beyond art — for example, to jewellery and watches?
Absolutely. The idea behind Numeraire is simple yet powerful: every object is unique. The texture of a painting, the surface of a metal, the veins of a stone — none can ever be replicated exactly. That makes a tremendous difference in the world of limited-edition jewellery and watches. A Rolex or Cartier bracelet no longer needs a paper certificate to prove authenticity; the material itself becomes the evidence. Each piece carries its own digital identity, enabling verification and transparency across the entire value chain — for brands, collectors, and consumers alike.
Where do you see digital identity systems heading over the next decade?
What begins today within the worlds of culture and art will soon expand to fields as diverse as medicine, defence, sustainable manufacturing, and luxury goods. In the near term, our aim is clear: to establish a new standard of trust across art, design, and the luxury industries. Our vision is both simple and ambitious — to create a verification technology that stays one step ahead of imitation, protecting authenticity in an increasingly digital world.
