The folk-wisdom version of priority-date proof is the "poor man's copyright" — mail your manuscript to yourself in a sealed envelope and keep it unopened. It is, charitably, weak. Postmarks can be faked. Envelopes can be steamed open and resealed. Most courts know this and treat the envelope as approximately useless. Formal copyright registration is the proper alternative; it costs $45–$125 depending on jurisdiction and form type, plus the time to file.
In between those two extremes sits a third option: anchor the manuscript's SHA-256 hash to the Bitcoin blockchain. It costs effectively nothing, takes thirty seconds, and produces a receipt that's mathematically harder to forge than any postmark.
What anchoring proves
The receipt demonstrates that a file with exactly these bytes existed on or before the anchored Bitcoin block time. For a manuscript, that matters in three situations:
- Idea-theft disputes. Someone publishes work strikingly similar to a draft you'd been sharing with beta readers. The anchor proves your draft existed before their publication.
- Co-author priority. Collaborators sometimes disagree about who contributed which sections when. Anchored drafts from each phase establish a clean timeline.
- AI-authorship accusations. If your novel comes out and someone accuses you of generating it with an LLM, an anchored draft from before the model's training cutoff defeats the claim cleanly.
What anchoring does not prove
It does not prove you wrote the manuscript. It proves the bytes existed by a specific time. For authorship, you pair the anchor with the rest of your normal evidence: drafts on different devices, Git history, dated emails to your agent or beta readers, the notebook where you sketched the outline. The anchor is one piece of a layered authorship story, not a one-shot proof.
The minimal ritual
-
Export your manuscript as a single file. DOCX, plain text,
Markdown — anything stable. If you might revise, freeze the
version by copying it under a name like
my_novel_v1_anchored_2026_05_14.docx. - Drop the file into Orphograph. SHA-256 runs in your browser; the manuscript stays on your machine.
- Download the receipt. Save it next to the manuscript file.
- Repeat for major revisions. Three anchors over the lifetime of a manuscript — initial draft, first complete pass, submission version — covers the typical priority timeline.
Cost
The free tier anchors three files per 24 hours forever. A Pack of Fifty ($29) covers ten anchors that never expire — enough for several manuscripts. $9/month gets you unlimited anchors plus a history view, which is the right tier for working novelists or anyone with multiple projects in flight.
What this is not
Not a copyright registration. Not legal advice. Not a substitute for talking to an IP attorney if your work is high-stakes. We sell a cheap, durable cryptographic anchor that strengthens your priority story; we don't sell a guarantee of any specific legal outcome.
FAQ
Does this replace copyright registration?
No. Copyright registration produces specific statutory benefits in some jurisdictions. Use both — anchor for cheap priority, register formally when the work warrants it.
Does my manuscript upload?
No. SHA-256 runs in your browser. Only the 32-byte hash leaves.
What if I revise the manuscript many times?
Anchor the versions that matter to you. Initial draft, first complete pass, submission version is a common three-anchor pattern.
Will a court accept this as evidence of authorship?
The anchor proves the file existed at a time. For authorship, pair it with drafts on different devices, version control, and dated correspondence. Talk to a specialist attorney for jurisdiction-specific weight.
How long does the proof last?
As long as the Bitcoin chain. The open-source verifier works without us.