# Overview ## The Legitimate Protocol The Legitimate Protocol is an secure decentralized framework designed to keep physical products in-sync with unique digital identities, specifically from an ownership and provenance perspective. When integrated into the Legitimate Protocol, a product is capable of becoming a phygital (physical + digital) product. NFC Tags operating on the Legitimate protocol can be by used by customers to verify the authenticity and ownership of physical goods through Legitimate's infrastructure and decentralized smart contracts. ### How it works NFC tags powered by the Legitimate protocol have a few key features: * Unique Digital Identity * A decentralized digital ID that satisfies most provenance and traceability protocols, designed to track products through their entire lifecycle. Owners can scan the NFC tag to claim ownership of a product. * Secure * A digital ID can be transferred from one owner to another to record any change in ownership. Our Locking Mechanism (defined below) is a secure escrow implementation that ensures the digital ID and the physical product belong to the same person. * [Locking Mechanism](https://docs.legitimate.tech/technical-docs/protocol/smart-contracts/locking-mechanism) * A digital ID is “locked” and cannot be unlocked or transferred until the NFC tag on the physical product is scanned by the new owner to unlock. * Extensible * Third party developers can build on top of this “locked” digital ID state to provide exclusive gated content, access, and more.

LGT Protocol Diagram