Decentralized Trusted Timestamping using the Crypto Currency Bitcoin
This provides a decentralized, privacy-preserving timestamping solution for researchers, authors, journalists, students, or artists to prove possession of information at given times, such as for contracts or media, though it is incremental as it builds on existing blockchain technology.
The paper tackles the problem of proving digital content existed at a specific time by implementing a web-based service that uses the Bitcoin blockchain to store tamper-proof timestamps for files like text, photos, or videos, enabling users to verify timestamps without compromising privacy.
Trusted timestamping is a process for proving that certain information existed at a given point in time. This paper presents a trusted timestamping concept and its implementation in form of a web-based service that uses the decentralized Bitcoin block chain to store anonymous, tamper-proof timestamps for digital content. The service allows users to hash files, such as text, photos or videos, and store the created hashes in the Bitcoin block chain. Users can then retrieve and verify the timestamps that have been committed to the block chain. The non-commercial service enables anyone, e.g., researchers, authors, journalists, students, or artists, to prove that they were in possession of certain information at a given point in time. Common use cases include proving that a contract has been signed, a photo taken, a video recorded, or a task completed prior to a certain date. All procedures maintain complete privacy of the user's data.