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> Without a published chain of transactions, there is no guarantee that the artist hasn't sold the same item multiple times.

That's not the problem. The problem is every "owner" of such item could just copy it and sell it to multiple people. And they would have no way of knowing they are not the unique owner.

Preventing double-spend is the only thing block-chains do that other things don't. That's why they exist.

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Thank you. The first paragraph says - "resale is out of scope". No, that is the whole scope!

> Whether that claim can be meaningfully sold on to someone else is outside the scope of this discussion.

The issue of sidestepping future interactions is that such a schema has no meaning. If I go a step further and stipulate that the transaction doesn't need to be proven to third parties then having any schema bar making the transaction itself is completely meaningless!

It is only when you attempt to prove or sell the claim in future, to third parties does such a schema and blockchains have some utility.

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