Aurora

Moving the proof off the sticker

Anti-counterfeiting on packaging has a structural problem: whatever you print on the box, a counterfeiter can print too. Holograms, scratch panels, serial stickers — all of them are copied within months, and the buyer has no way to tell a copied proof from a real one because both are just ink.

Aurora starts from the other end. The manufacturer is verified by a human before they can list anything. Each unit they create gets a serial number and a QR code that resolves to a page on our side. When a shop buys the unit, ownership transfers and the unit is frozen. When a customer scans the code, they are not reading the packaging — they are reading a record that names who made it, who sold it, and when.

The rules are the product

Almost every interesting decision in this codebase is a restriction rather than a feature. Sold products cannot be edited. QR codes cannot be regenerated. Ownership only moves forward. None of those are hard to implement — the work is noticing that each one is load-bearing, because a chain of custody with an escape hatch is not a chain of custody.

protected function serialNumber(): Attribute
{
    return Attribute::make(
        set: fn () => $this->generateSerialNumber(),
    );
}

private function generateSerialNumber(): ?string
{
    $serial_number = fake()->unique()->numerify('SN-########');

    while ($this->where('serial_number', $serial_number)->exists()) {
        $serial_number = fake()->unique()->numerify('SN-########');
    }

    return $serial_number;
}

The setter ignores whatever it is handed. That is intentional: a serial number is not something a caller gets to propose, and the cheapest way to enforce that is to make the attribute incapable of accepting an outside value in the first place.