Incipite vs Digital Timestamps (2026)

Side-by-side comparison

The £0.99 difference: raw record vs usable credential

Digital Timestamps produces a timestamp and a hash — technical evidence that a file existed at a given moment. That is the core of what blockchain timestamping does. At £2.00, it is the lowest-price option on the UK market.

The gap with Incipite at £2.99 is not about the blockchain anchor — both use Bitcoin. It is about what you can do with the proof. Incipite issues a formatted PDF certificate bearing your name, the SHA-256 hash, the Bitcoin transaction ID, and a QR code link to the public verification page. You can send that certificate to a publisher, a solicitor, or a collaborator and they can read and verify it without technical knowledge.

A raw hash record requires the other party to understand OpenTimestamps verification. A PDF certificate does not.

Legal standing in the UK

Both services rely on blockchain timestamping supported under UK law:

• ·Electronic Communications Act 2000 (s.7): electronic signatures and records are admissible as evidence.
• ·Civil Evidence Act 1995 (s.8): electronic records can prove the truth of their contents.
• ·eIDAS Regulation (art. 41): electronic timestamps from qualified trust services carry a presumption of accuracy — the UK retained this framework post-Brexit via the UK Electronic Identification and Trust Services for Electronic Transactions Regulations 2016.

In its ruling of 20 March 2025 (RG 23/00046), the Tribunal Judiciaire de Marseille took two blockchain timestamps into account as evidence of copyright ownership, alongside other elements (the AZ Factory brand on the labels, online disclosure since March 2021); the judgment does not discuss the technical reliability of the timestamps. It is a French decision and does not bind UK courts: it is cited here as an example only.

Open-source protocol: verify without us

Both services use Bitcoin for anchoring. Incipite uses OpenTimestamps specifically — an open-source protocol created by Peter Todd, a Bitcoin Core developer. Every Incipite certificate includes a .ots proof file that can be verified at opentimestamps.org or via the command-line tool, independently of Incipite.

This matters for durability: if Incipite ceased operating, your proofs would remain fully verifiable on the public blockchain. Your evidence is not hostage to any service provider.

Account, history, and the £49 lifetime plan

Incipite gives you a verified account (via Clerk authentication) with a full certification history accessible from your dashboard. You can re-download any past certificate, share public verification links at incipite.com/verify/[hash], and track the Bitcoin anchoring status of pending certifications.

The Founder lifetime plan at £49 is unique on the UK market. No competitor — not Digital Timestamps, not Bernstein, not WordProof — offers a one-time payment for unlimited certifications. If you create regularly, the breakeven is 17 certifications at £2.99 each. After that, every certification is free.

Who should choose which?

Digital Timestamps may suit a technically sophisticated user who only needs the raw hash record and wants the lowest per-certification cost. If you are comfortable reading a blockchain transaction and do not need a PDF credential, it does the job.

Incipite is the better choice if you want to share your proof with non-technical parties (publishers, labels, agents, solicitors), if you want to build a certification history, or if the volume of works you create makes the £49 lifetime plan attractive.

Frequently asked questions