Maybe they need a competitor that primarily offers full registration and partner insurance for gear creating a national registry for proof of ownership and hist

Maybe they need a competitor that primarily offers full registration and partner insurance for gear creating a national registry for proof of ownership and history. This would be amazing for bikes too (there are state registries that overlap but much done to optimize them) but mostly exists for cars/etc given states and insurance companies communicate who owns/registers/covers what serial numbers. If it's for sale by owner, check the serial against the database to see if it pings as stolen or lost. Then, as a secondary service, it links owners with renters through a much more complex vetting/data gathering process. Operate more like Wikimedia/pedia where the loftier goal (for Wiki* preserving and serving human knowledge) of protecting owners via the registry is more important than profiting off questionable practices or no liability in cases like this. I'm big on this ever since my bike was stolen and sat in a local bike co-op shop before getting sold because the co-op didn't legally check the serial against the state's stolen bikes database. Some kid I went to high school with basically got a "Sorry, it's his bike," speech from a cop as they cut the lock and gave me back my property after I found it, serial and all, outside a local park. If the co-op had followed the process, my bike would have been returned earlier and the kid wouldn't have wasted his time and money. Nobody followed the rules and we all lost out.