For freelancers
Prove what you delivered, and when
Work rarely goes out under textbook conditions: no signed purchase order, a transfer link that expires in seven days, and a scope agreed over a call. Incipite anchors your delivery’s fingerprint on the Bitcoin blockchain and issues a dated certificate — solid evidence of what your delivery contained, without the files ever leaving your computer.
What actually happens, and how it gets settled
- The scope changes after delivery. “That is not what we agreed”, “files are missing”, “that was not the version”. With no record of what went out, it is your word against theirs.
- The invoice goes unpaid. What counts before a commercial court is what you performed. A dated delivery whose contents are established beats a thread of messages.
- The files are used beyond what was licensed. Reused for another brand, another medium, another term. Establishing what you handed over, and when, is where that conversation starts.
- The transfer link has expired. Six months later the service keeps nothing, and your email proves only that a send occurred — not what it contained.
Scenario
A designer delivers a full brand identity: logos, variants, guidelines, source files. Everything was agreed over messages, the quote was never countersigned, and the archive went out via a transfer link. Three months later the client disputes the scope and reuses the source files for a second brand. The link has expired, and the sending email does not establish what was in it.
What you already have, and what it covers
The contract remains the main tool and nothing replaces it. This table simply shows what is missing when it was never signed — which, in practice, is very often.
| Item | Cost | What it establishes | The limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| A signed contract or quote | Free | Scope and licence | The main tool, by far. It states what is owed and what is licensed. But it does not state what you actually handed over, nor when. |
| The sending email | Free | That a send took place | Useful, and worth keeping. But the timestamp belongs to the server, an attachment can be edited, and a transfer link expires — often within seven days. |
| The transfer link | Free | A temporary trace | Built to carry, not to archive. Past the deadline neither the files nor the list of what they were remains. |
| A bailiff’s or solicitor’s record | High, per act | A strong certain date | High evidentiary weight, and well suited to a dispute already under way. Cost and delay make it a solution for one case, not for every delivery. |
| Incipite | A couple of pounds | The exact contents of the delivery, to the second | A fingerprint anchored in the Bitcoin blockchain, with no expiry, verifiable by a third party without going through us. Done at delivery time, in thirty seconds. |
The email proves the send. The timestamp proves the contents.
That is the whole distinction, and it is rarely drawn. Your email establishes that a send took place, to whom and when — but not what was inside it, an attachment being editable and a link temporary. The timestamp establishes that one exact file existed in that exact form on that date. Together they make a solid pair; separately, each leaves open the question the other closes.
How it works, in three steps
- 1Assemble the delivery exactly as you were going to send it. The final files, in an archive if there are several. That is the very package to certify, byte for byte.
- 2Deposit it on Incipite before sending. The SHA-256 fingerprint is computed inside your browser — nothing is uploaded. On a paid plan each file inside the archive keeps its own fingerprint, itemised on the certificate.
- 3Send, then file the certificate with the job. If you ever need to establish what was handed over, the record already exists — and it predates the disagreement, which is precisely where its value lies.
What Incipite does not do
- It does not prove the client received the delivery. Your email, a read receipt or recorded delivery establish transmission. We establish the contents, not the handover. Keep both.
- It does not replace a contract. Licensing, scope and deadlines are settled in writing and signed. A certificate documents a delivery; it says nothing about what you licensed.
- It does not prove you authored the work. The depositor’s identity is self-declared — we verify no identity document, and the certificate says so. What is established is that one exact file existed at one exact date and that you had it in hand.
- It does not collect your invoice. We provide an item of evidence, not a procedure. Recovery still means a formal notice, mediation or a commercial court.
Where the law stands
Article 41(1) of the EU eIDAS Regulation forbids dismissing an electronic time stamp on the sole ground that it is electronic: it must be assessed on its merits. Between businesses, evidence is generally admitted freely, and a dated record that a third party can verify — and that predates the dispute — weighs accordingly. The case law in detail →
Frequently asked
+I already have a signed contract. Is this still useful?
The contract states what is owed and what is licensed; it does not state what you handed over, or when. That is exactly what an unhappy client disputes: not what was agreed, but what arrived. The two documents answer different questions.
+Is my sending email not enough?
It establishes that a send took place, which matters. But its timestamp belongs to a server, an attachment can be edited, and a transfer link often expires within seven days. Six months on, all that remains is the trace of a send whose contents are no longer established.
+Should I certify every delivery?
No. Certify the ones that matter: a job with no signed contract, a high-value deliverable, a handover to a client where the framing stayed vague. On well-contracted work the benefit is marginal, and we say so.
+Do you see my files?
Never. The SHA-256 fingerprint is computed inside your browser; sixty-four hexadecimal characters are all that reaches us. Your client deliverables never pass through us — which is also why depositing a heavy archive is instant.
+What if the client disputes that the certified file is the one they received?
They compare. The certificate carries the file’s SHA-256 fingerprint: if the file they hold produces the same fingerprint, it is the same file, byte for byte. The verification page is public and works without us.
+What if Incipite disappears?
Your proof survives. It rests on OpenTimestamps, an open protocol in use since 2016. The .ots receipt you download verifies with the official client, without us.
3 free certifications for life · No credit card · File stays 100% local
Date my next delivery →Solid dated evidence — replaces neither a contract nor a delivery receipt.
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