Blockchain timestamping for architects
By BlockchainSignLast updated
Architectural practices give away good work constantly — to competitions, to tenders, to prospective clients — usually before anything has been signed. A dated record of what was submitted is cheap insurance on an expensive process.
The moment this matters
Competition entries. You spend weeks on a submission, and a jury of people including practising architects reviews it. Most competitions are run honourably. The ones that are not are difficult to challenge without evidence of what you submitted and when.
Speculative work and tenders. A prospective client sees a scheme, does not appoint you, and builds something that rhymes with it. Priority is what the argument turns on.
Design development. A record of when a design reached a particular state — useful in fee disputes, in scope arguments, and in any question about what was designed before a variation.
Planning submissions. A dated archive of exactly what was submitted, held independently of the authority's portal.
What is protected, and what is not
Worth being precise, because architecture sits awkwardly in copyright.
Copyright protects architectural works — the design of a building — and separately protects the drawings, plans and models as pictorial and graphic works. Those are two distinct protections and both are yours automatically on creation.
What copyright does not cover: standard features, functional requirements, and design elements dictated by the site, the brief or the building code. A general layout driven by a constrained site is not authorship.
So the realistic claim is usually over the specific expression — this scheme, these drawings — and that claim needs a date. A timestamp supplies the date; it creates no right, and it does not register anything.
Why the files stay on your machine
Competition submissions are confidential until judging, tenders are confidential throughout, and client work is usually under an appointment that says so.
The file is hashed in your browser with the Web Crypto API and only the 64-character hash is transmitted. There is no upload endpoint. A 400 MB Revit export, a full drawing set, a rendered package — none of it goes anywhere. The free hash tool runs the same code with nothing transmitted at all, so you can verify the claim rather than accept it.
A practical sequence
| When | What to timestamp |
|---|---|
| Concept design settled | The scheme drawings and sketches |
| Before a competition submission | The exact submission package |
| Before a speculative presentation | The deck as sent |
| Stage completion | The issued drawing set |
| Before planning submission | The submitted package |
Zip a drawing set into one archive and timestamp the archive — the certificate then covers that exact package, in that exact state.
What it proves
That the file existed by that date and has not changed. Not that you designed it: see proof of existence vs proof of authorship. Its value is priority, and priority is decided by whose record is earlier — which is an argument for timestamping at concept stage rather than at submission.