IC7Steve Kirton

Provenance ยท 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, with 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, so 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, producing 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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