Blockchain timestamping for authors
By BlockchainSignLast updated
A manuscript is at its most exposed in the weeks it is being sent out and its least protected: unpublished, usually unregistered, and in the hands of people who have signed nothing.
The submission window
You finish a draft. It goes to agents, to a publisher, to a competition, to beta readers, to a developmental editor. Each of those is a copy in someone else's hands, and almost none of them will have signed anything.
The realistic risk is not that a reputable agent steals your book. It is more mundane: a dispute about what you submitted, a contest whose terms are vague, a collaborator whose memory of who wrote what differs from yours, or a similar work appearing later and a question of who was first.
Registration is the right answer for a finished work you might defend. It costs roughly $45–$65 in the US and takes time, and most authors do not register every draft of everything. That is the gap.
What to timestamp, and when
| When | What |
|---|---|
| First complete draft | The full manuscript |
| Before each submission | The exact file you are sending |
| Before a contest entry | The submitted version |
| Before sharing with collaborators | The state as it stands |
| After significant revision | The new draft, keeping the old certificate |
Timestamping the earliest version matters more than timestamping the polished one. Priority is decided by whose record is earlier, and your first draft predates everything.
Keep the certificates for superseded drafts. A sequence of dated versions showing a manuscript developing over months is far more persuasive than one dated finished file — a copyist has the finished text and nothing behind it.
Why nothing is uploaded
An unpublished manuscript should not be sitting on a company's server, and there is no reason for it to be.
The file is hashed in your browser with the Web Crypto API and only the 64-character SHA-256 hash is transmitted. There is no upload endpoint. You can confirm this in your browser's network tab, and the free hash tool demonstrates the same thing with nothing sent anywhere.
Keep the exact file you timestamped, byte for byte. Re-saving a document changes its bytes and therefore its hash, so archive the version you certified rather than continuing to edit it.
The honest comparison
Against poor man's copyright — mailing yourself a sealed envelope — a blockchain record is better on every axis. The envelope trick is well known, easy to fake, and has been rejected repeatedly. See poor man's copyright.
Against copyright registration, it is not a substitute. Registration is required before you can sue in the US and is what unlocks statutory damages. A timestamp is evidence of a date, not a legal filing. Most authors are best served by timestamping continuously and registering the works they might actually defend — see copyright registration alternatives.
Against WGA registration, for screenwriters: WGA registration expires and is industry-specific; a blockchain record does not expire and covers any file. See the WGA comparison.
What it proves
That the exact text existed by that date and has not changed. Not that you wrote it. Someone who copies a manuscript can timestamp the copy, and the record will honestly show they held it on that date — which is precisely why the value lies in being earlier, and in having the sequence of drafts behind you.
See proof of existence vs proof of authorship, which sets out where that line falls.