Overview

The submission window is Truestamp’s core timing guarantee: proof that data was submitted after one block and before another. The submitted-after edge is the most recent internal block that existed at the moment of submission, folded into the item’s metadata hash so it cannot be changed later; the submitted-before edge is the finalized block whose Merkle tree includes the item’s hash. Both edge blocks are later committed to public blockchains, so neither edge can be backdated, and the window is typically about a minute wide. Truestamp always says “submitted” and “submission window”, never “created” or “creation time”, because a proof establishes submission timing, not when content was originally made; see the sibling term creation time. The full mechanics are in the submission window concept, the fingerprint construction in the item’s composite fingerprint, and the proof structure in Merkle inclusion proofs.