The vault.
A SHA-256 hash is a 64-character fingerprint of a file. Alter one character of the file and the fingerprint changes entirely; the fingerprint does not directly expose the document's contents. Publish the fingerprint while keeping the draft private, and the draft's existence at that moment becomes provable to any party with free tools, for as long as the file and its proof are kept. Applied at the end of each writing session, the practice accumulates a dated record that particular files existed at particular times — which does not verify authorship or authentic development, as the limits below spell out.
The hasher
Computation happens in this browser, using its built-in cryptography. Hashing requires no upload or server-side processing, and the file is never transmitted; the claim is inspectable in this page's source, and the tool functions identically with networking disabled.
SHA-256 fingerprint
CopiedAnchoring
- Record
Append one line to a running log: date, filename, fingerprint. Retain the draft file unaltered; the fingerprint vouches for that exact version and no other.
- Anchor
Stamp the fingerprint at opentimestamps.org, an open protocol that commits hashes to the Bitcoin blockchain. The resulting .ots proof file is small; keep it beside the draft. No account, no fee, no reliance on any company, this one included.
- Repeat
The evidentiary weight is in the sequence. A document written over three weeks might carry ten anchored fingerprints, each independently verifiable years later.
What a timestamp does not prove
A timestamp sequence documents that particular files existed over time. It does not establish who created them, how they were created, or whether their development was authentic; a determined fabricator could generate text by machine and stamp it in stages, and staged files with scheduled stamping can even be automated. What the practice holds is one property no detector score offers: every element is verifiable by the party judging it, with no trust in this site required.
Platform version histories remain strong evidence in their own right. The vault practice exists because those histories sit on a vendor's servers under a vendor's retention policy, while the fingerprint log sits with the writer.
Complete as it stands
The practice on this page requires nothing further from this site: the hasher, the log, and OpenTimestamps are the whole instrument, free and inspectable, and they work with this site gone. The one paid product planned here is the evidence packet, which organizes drafts and version-history captures into the exhibit format the records checklist describes, kept on your machine; fingerprints and .ots proofs travel in an optional technical appendix, since a committee reads dated drafts more readily than hashes. Nothing on this site will ever hold custody of drafts, hashes, or logs; an instrument whose value is that no one has to trust its maker cannot come with an account.