Common questions, considered answers.

Does the file leave my machine?

No. The browser computes the file's SHA-256 and SHA-512 fingerprints locally; only those fingerprints are submitted to the calendars and ultimately committed to Bitcoin. The file itself is never transmitted.

What does the receipt prove?

That a file with this fingerprint existed by the time of the recorded Bitcoin block. Nothing is claimed about authorship, ownership, originality, or content.

What if the file is renamed or modified later?

Any change to the file produces a different fingerprint and would not verify against the original receipt. The receipt attests to the exact bytes that were present at the time of anchoring; nothing more, nothing less.

Why Bitcoin?

Bitcoin has not reorganized beyond a handful of blocks in sixteen years. A block from an hour ago is, for any practical purpose, immutable. Orphograph commits to that chain via the OpenTimestamps protocol, which aggregates many fingerprints into a single transaction so the marginal cost per anchor is effectively zero.

How long does it take?

Calendar attestations are immediate; a receipt is issued within a few seconds. Commitment to a Bitcoin block typically arrives within the next block, approximately one hour. The receipt remains valid throughout that interval; a second notice formalizes the on-chain commitment.

How is the receipt verified later?

The receipt files (.ots) are verified against the Bitcoin chain directly. A one-hundred-line MIT-licensed verifier is published, and any OpenTimestamps client will also verify a receipt. Verification does not require Orphograph; if this office were to close, every receipt remains independently checkable.

Can I anchor a Bitcoin transaction directly instead of using calendars?

A premium direct-transaction option is on the roadmap for cases where the standard one-block-window is unsuitable. For the common case, the OpenTimestamps aggregator path is more cost-efficient and equally final.

What is recorded about me?

For free-tier visitors, only a truncated network address is retained for rate-limiting, and only briefly. For account-holders, the email used at sign-in and a non-reversible identifier derived from it. No file names, no content, no full network addresses, no behavioural profiles.

Is there an account requirement?

The free tier requires no account. Paid tiers use email-based sign-in for the receipt vault and unrestricted anchoring; no password is created or stored.

Does Orphograph attest that a file is human-made or not AI-generated?

No. The receipt records that a file existed at a given moment. Whether the file was created by a person, a model, or any other process is outside the scope of what is attested.

Can the receipt be used in court?

Orphograph issues no opinion on evidentiary admissibility. The receipt is a mathematical attestation that a fingerprint existed by a given block, verifiable against the public Bitcoin chain. How a given jurisdiction weighs that attestation is a matter for counsel.

What happens to the receipt if Orphograph closes?

Every receipt remains verifiable against the Bitcoin chain using the published MIT verifier or any OpenTimestamps client. The receipt is the instrument; this office is the issuer, not the trust anchor.