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Browse the concepts behind Truestamp. Follow the links between concepts, or search across everything.

Tagged: provenance

8
Library
Anagram and Cipher Priority Claims How 17th-century natural philosophers (Galileo, Huygens, Hooke, Newton) staked priority on a discovery by first publishing it as a dated anagram or letter-count cipher: a hand-built hide-and-bind commitment revealed later. Cornerstones, Foundation Deposits, and Time Capsules How dated, sealed deposits (Mesopotamian foundation pegs, Egyptian foundation deposits, Masonic cornerstones, and modern time capsules) bind an inscribed record into a tamper-evident context to prove provenance, authorship, and a not-later-than date. Patents and Caveats as Priority Instruments How patent filings and confidential caveats used a neutral state office to record a dated priority for an invention: an institutional timestamp and proof-of-existence marker, ancestor to modern cryptographic timestamping. Poor Man's Copyright The folk practice of mailing a sealed copy of your own work to yourself so the postal postmark serves as a dated third-party proof the contents existed by that date, with its copyright, authorship, and timestamping limits. Provenance Marks and Registers How registers, split tally sticks, assay hallmarks with date letters, dated colophons, and steganographic concealment served as pre-cryptographic proofs of priority, provenance, authorship, integrity, and timestamp. Sealed Deposits with Learned Societies How scientists secured priority by lodging a dated, signed sealed note with a learned society (the French pli cachete, the Soleau envelope), fixing a date without disclosing the content until the seal was opened. Seals, Signets, and Notaries How cylinder seals, wax signets, papal leaden bullae, and the notarial instrument bound authorship, authenticity, integrity, and provenance to documents and made tampering evident: physical ancestors of cryptographic proof of existence. Witnessed and Notarized Laboratory Notebooks How inventors used bound, dated, countersigned or notarized laboratory notebooks to prove priority, authorship, and a not-later-than date under the historical US first-to-invent patent regime.