A Persistent Identifier (PID) is a short piece of text that corresponds to a single unique concept - They can identify projects, organizations, people, artwork, animals, software, videos, accounts, or anything else.
ark:/49595/mpR00111 represents our game, Sandboxels.
A resolver can convert your ID to a URL, making your ID persistent, meaning it will always lead to the resource it identifies, even if the URL changes. Like this:
https://R74n.com/id/?ark:/49595/mpR00111
↓
https://R74n.com/multiplane/?code=R00111
↓
https://sandboxels.R74n.com/
PIDs usually conform to a particular standard, such as ISSNs, DOIs, Object Identifiers (OIDs), or Archival Resource Keys (ARKs). Some standards use numbers, some use letters, and some use any text!
In standards like OID, IDs could even have children, and those children could have children, creating an infinite tree that you can manage on your own! Like this:
1.3.6.1.4.1
↳ 1.3.6.1.4.1.61117
↳ 1.3.6.1.4.1.61117.1
↳ 1.3.6.1.4.1.61117.1.273
You can apply for IDs in multiple standards from us with our Identifier Request Form.