orphograph

Terms of Service

Last updated: 2026-05-16.

1. What you're getting

Orphograph hashes files in your browser and submits the resulting SHA-256 digest to OpenTimestamps calendars, which batch many users' hashes into Bitcoin transactions. You receive a receipt that anyone can verify against Bitcoin's chain using the open-source verifier on GitHub.

2. What you're NOT getting

We are not a qualified trust-service provider. Our receipts are proof-of-existence, not legally-binding timestamps under eIDAS or any national equivalent. We make no claim of court-admissibility. If you need legally-binding timestamps for litigation, consult a qualified digital-evidence specialist or a regulated notary.

Anchoring a hash does not establish authorship, ownership, originality, or copyright. It establishes that a specific byte sequence existed at a specific time.

3. Free tier

The free tier permits up to three (3) anchors per IP-prefix in any rolling 24-hour window. The window is enforced by the server's own UTC monotonic clock and is independent of the client device's local time zone, system clock, regional settings, or daylight-saving-time changes. Changing the time zone, system clock, locale, or any client-side time setting does not extend, reset, or otherwise affect the 24-hour window — the server alone is authoritative for free-tier accounting.

Attempts to bypass the 24-hour window by rotating IP addresses, abusing automated clients, or otherwise circumventing the rate-limit are prohibited and may result in suspension of access without notice. Free-tier receipts are anchored to the same calendars as paid receipts and are verifiable the same way. Free-tier receipts may be pruned from our servers after thirty (30) days; your locally-stored copy of the receipt and the OTS proof files remains independently verifiable against the Bitcoin blockchain regardless.

4. Writer Pack ($19 one-time)

Buying a Writer Pack grants 10 anchor credits associated with a single bearer-token claim code. Credits never expire. The claim code is the sole means of spending the credits — anyone with the code can use them. Treat it like a gift-card number. Lost claim codes cannot be recovered.

Refunds: full refund within 7 days of purchase for unused credits. Email [email protected]. Partially-used Packs are refunded pro-rata at our discretion.

5. Service availability

Orphograph is provided "as is." We may suspend or end the service at any time. Because receipts are anchored to Bitcoin via standard OpenTimestamps and our verifier is open source, your receipts remain verifiable without us. We commit to keeping the verifier repo public and the OTS protocol unmodified for as long as we operate.

6. Acceptable use

Do not use Orphograph to anchor hashes of files whose distribution is unlawful in your jurisdiction. We do not see your files, so we cannot police content — but we will cooperate with valid legal process regarding ledger records of hashes and email addresses associated with Pack purchases.

7. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the office's aggregate liability for any claim arising out of or relating to the service is limited to the fees paid by the claimant to the office in the twelve (12) months preceding the claim. The office disclaims liability for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages, including lost profits and lost data, even if advised of the possibility of such damages. This limitation applies to any cause of action, whether founded in contract, tort, statute, or any other legal theory, and survives any failure of essential purpose of any limited remedy.

8. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the applicable laws of the United States of America, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the service shall be brought exclusively in the courts located within the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, USA, except as required by the arbitration provision below. Each party submits to the personal jurisdiction of those courts and waives any objection to venue therein.

9. Changes

We may update these terms; the "Last updated" date will change. Continued use after an update is acceptance of the new terms. Material changes will be emailed to Pack purchasers when feasible.

10. Intellectual Property & Permitted Use

All right, title, and interest in and to the Orphograph wordmark, the Orphograph seal and logomark, the institutional notarial aesthetic and design language, the original source code of this service, the original copy of this site, the receipt format, the office's identifier scheme, and any associated documentation (collectively, the "Orphograph IP") are owned by the operator of Orphograph and are protected by United States and international copyright, trademark, and trade-dress law. All rights are reserved.

Nothing in these Terms transfers any ownership of the Orphograph IP to any user, customer, or visitor. Your access to the live service is a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, and non-sublicensable license to use the service in accordance with these Terms — and nothing more.

Without prior express written permission from the operator, you may not:

What is not claimed. Orphograph asserts no proprietary rights in the OpenTimestamps protocol, the Bitcoin blockchain, the SHA-256 or SHA-512 hash functions, or any well-established public cryptographic primitive — these are public infrastructure. The .ots proof files produced by the service are intentionally in a standard format that any third-party OpenTimestamps verifier can read; the user is and remains free to verify their own receipts using any such tool, independently of Orphograph.

Permitted uses, by contrast, include: using the live service per these Terms; saving and sharing receipts you have created; independently verifying any Orphograph receipt with open-source OpenTimestamps tooling; linking to https://orphograph.com in editorial or news contexts; citing the service in academic or journalistic writing with attribution; and any other use granted by fair-use principles under United States copyright law.

Permission requests for any other use, including licensing inquiries, partnership proposals, or written compliance review, should be sent to [email protected] with "Licensing" in the subject. No silence shall be construed as consent. Unauthorized use of the Orphograph IP may be enforced under all applicable civil and statutory remedies, including injunctive relief and recovery of attorneys' fees where permitted by law.

11. Binding Arbitration & Class-Action Waiver

Any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or your use of Orphograph (each, a "Dispute") that cannot be resolved informally within thirty (30) days of written notice shall be resolved by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Commercial Arbitration Rules, with a single arbitrator, conducted in the English language. The seat of arbitration shall be San Juan, Puerto Rico; the arbitrator may hold proceedings remotely.

Class-action and consolidated-proceeding waiver. You and Orphograph each agree that Disputes shall be resolved only on an individual basis. Neither party may bring or participate in a class action, consolidated action, or representative action against the other. If a court of competent jurisdiction finds this waiver unenforceable as to any portion of a Dispute, that portion shall be severed and the remainder of the arbitration agreement shall remain in force.

Carve-outs. Either party may seek injunctive or equitable relief in a court of competent jurisdiction for intellectual-property infringement, trademark dilution, or breach of Section 10 (Intellectual Property & Permitted Use), without first submitting to arbitration. Small-claims actions remain available to either party where eligible.

Thirty-day opt-out. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement within thirty (30) days of first accepting these Terms by sending written notice to [email protected] with "Arbitration Opt-Out" in the subject line, your name, and the email you used with Orphograph.

12. Copyright Complaints (DMCA)

Orphograph respects the intellectual-property rights of others and expects users to do the same. If you believe content available through this service infringes a copyright you own or control, you may submit a notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. §512) to our designated agent at [email protected] with "DMCA Notice" in the subject line.

A valid DMCA notice must include: (a) your physical or electronic signature; (b) identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed; (c) identification of the material claimed to be infringing and information reasonably sufficient to locate it (typically a receipt ID, URL, or SHA-256 fingerprint); (d) your contact information; (e) a statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorized; and (f) a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the rights holder.

Note on what we can and cannot remove. Orphograph stores cryptographic fingerprints, not files. A DMCA notice may cause us to remove the public receipt page (/r/<id>) from our servers — it cannot remove the underlying Bitcoin transaction, which is anchored in a decentralized public ledger that this office does not control. The .ots proof files distributed prior to removal remain independently verifiable.

Counter-notifications may be submitted by the receipt holder under the same procedure. Repeat infringers will have their access terminated.

13. Warranty Disclaimer

The service is provided "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE", without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and any warranty arising from course of dealing or usage of trade. The office makes no warranty that the service will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or free of harmful components. The subscriber bears the entire risk as to the quality and performance of the service.

14. Indemnification

The subscriber agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the office, its agents, and its affiliates from and against any claim, demand, loss, liability, damage, judgment, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to (i) the subscriber's use of the service in violation of these Terms; (ii) the subscriber's violation of any law or regulation; (iii) the subscriber's violation of any right of a third party; or (iv) any material the subscriber anchors using the service. The office reserves the right, at its own expense, to assume the exclusive defence and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by the subscriber, in which event the subscriber shall cooperate with the office in asserting any available defence.

15. Force Majeure

The office is not liable for any failure or delay in performance arising from events beyond its reasonable control, including acts of God, war, terrorism, civil unrest, governmental action, labour disturbance, internet failure, third-party vendor failure, and natural disaster. The office shall use reasonable efforts to resume performance as soon as practicable following the cessation of the event giving rise to the delay.

16. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable by a court or arbitrator of competent jurisdiction, the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect. The invalid provision shall be construed, to the extent permitted, to give effect to the parties' original intent.

17. No Assignment

The subscriber may not assign these Terms or any rights or obligations under them, by operation of law or otherwise, without the office's prior written consent. Any purported assignment in contravention of this section is void. The office may assign these Terms to a successor entity in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganisation, or sale of substantially all assets, without consent of the subscriber.

18. Entire Agreement and Modification

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, the Acceptable Use Policy, and any other documents incorporated herein by reference, constitute the entire agreement between the subscriber and the office with respect to the service, and supersede all prior or contemporaneous understandings or agreements, written or oral, regarding the subject matter. Material modifications take effect not less than thirty (30) days after public posting at /legal/ on this site.

19. No Waiver

The office's failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms is not a waiver of that right or provision. No waiver of any term of these Terms shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or any other term. A waiver is effective only if rendered in writing by an authorised representative of the office.

20. Survival

The provisions of these Terms concerning limitation of liability, warranty disclaimer, indemnification, governing law, arbitration, intellectual property, and any other provision that by its nature is intended to survive, shall survive termination of the service or of these Terms.

21. Documents Incorporated by Reference

The following documents are incorporated by reference into these Terms and form part of the agreement between the subscriber and the office:

22. Contact

[email protected] for general correspondence; [email protected] for matters of a legal character.