IC7Steve Kirton

Provenance · Algorand

Don't trust. Verify.

Every piece I publish through the provenance pipeline is fingerprinted with SHA-256 and signed onto the Algorand blockchain before it goes live. That makes who published it first, and when, checkable by anyone — no need to take my word for it, or this server's. Pieces carrying a provenance panel can be verified below.

Check a page

Verify any piece, live.

Paste the URL of any article or idea (or open the link from its provenance panel). Your browser re-hashes the text and checks it against the on-chain record — nothing is taken on faith.

How it works

Three steps, all independently reproducible:

  • Fingerprint. At publication, the exact source text is normalised and hashed with SHA-256 — a 64-character fingerprint that changes if a single character changes.
  • Anchor. That fingerprint is written into the note field of a zero-value Algorand transaction, signed by my wallet. The blockchain timestamps it permanently and publicly.
  • Verify. To check a piece, your browser re-hashes its text and confirms the result matches the note in that on-chain transaction — and that the signer is one of my published wallets. Match means: published here first, signed by my wallet, unchanged since, and existing no later than that block.

What this proves — and what it doesn't

It proves a specific text existed, in this exact form, signed by this wallet, at or before a specific moment on a public ledger. In a world of fluent AI imitation, that is the difference between claiming a voice and proving one: being demonstrably first, and demonstrably the source.

It does not claim the ideas are correct, nor that no one wrote something similar offline. It is a proof of first publication and timing under my wallet, not of originality of thought.

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