For illustrators
Date your artwork before you publish it
Publishing is making something copyable. Incipite anchors your source files' fingerprints on the Bitcoin blockchain before they go online and issues a dated certificate — solid prior art evidence, verifiable by anyone, without your files ever leaving your computer. Three certifications are free, for life.
What you are actually exposed to
- Uncredited reposts, at scale. Your artwork travels cropped, signature trimmed off, on accounts presenting it as their own.
- Resale on a print-on-demand shop. On a shirt, a poster, a mug. The takedown itself rests on your sworn statement, not on a date — but if the copier files a counter-notice, that is where dated evidence carries weight.
- A pass through an image generator. What a date does not prove: that your work was used to train a model — what has to be shown is inclusion in the corpus, and that is out of your reach. What it does prove: that your sources predate it, which matters the day you are accused of the opposite.
- The reverse accusation, increasingly common. You are suspected of having generated your own work. A dated, earlier file plus your layered sources answers that better than a long comment thread.
Scenario
Priya finishes a series of twelve illustrations and posts them to build an audience before selling prints. Two months later a friend sends her a screenshot of a shop selling one of them printed. She has her layered files, which show exactly how the image was made. But nothing attests to when — while the shop has a listing date.
What people usually do, and what it really covers
The craft reflexes are sound: they mostly prove the how. What is almost always missing is the when — and the when is precisely what you will be asked for.
| Method | Cost | What it proves | The limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| The layered source file | Free | How you worked | A PSD or Procreate file with its history is a very strong authorship clue. But its date is the filesystem's, and that changes in two clicks. |
| Signature or watermark | Free | Your claim | Deters lazy theft and helps with credit. It crops, it blurs, and it dates nothing. |
| A dated publication | Free | A date of going online | Useful, but publishing comes after creating — and most platforms let you schedule or backdate a post. |
| Deposit with a trusted third party | Charged per deposit | A file existed at a date | Solid, and well suited to a flagship series. The cost is per deposit: hard to sustain on a weekly publishing rhythm. |
| Incipite | A couple of pounds | The exact file, to the second | A fingerprint anchored in the Bitcoin blockchain, with no expiry, verifiable by a third party without going through us. A whole series certifies at once, each file keeping its own fingerprint. |
If the theft already happened — the honest answer
Certifying today proves your file existed today. It does not prove you were first yesterday, and nobody should tell you otherwise. What it still gives you: your layered source file, dated from now on, against a flattened image on the copier's side — that is an imbalance people notice. And above all it protects the rest of your catalogue, the part that has not been stolen yet. That is where the real protection is decided.
How it works, in three steps
- 1Take your source files, not the exports. The PSD, the Procreate file, the .clip: that is what the copier does not have, and what carries the most weight.
- 2Deposit them on Incipite before publishing. The SHA-256 fingerprint is computed inside your browser — nothing travels to our servers. A whole series can go through as one ZIP archive.
- 3Publish, then file the certificate away. If you ever need to act, the evidence already exists and predates the posting — rather than being assembled in a hurry.
What Incipite does not do
- It does not protect a style. A palette, a line, a visual world cannot be owned — happily, or nobody could draw any more. What is dated is one exact file, not a manner.
- It does not prove you drew the image. It proves one exact file existed at one exact date and that you had it in hand. Alongside your layered sources, it is the link that was missing.
- It does not take an image down for you. A takedown goes through the platform or a formal notice, and neither asks for a timestamp. The certificate earns its place afterwards, if the request is challenged.
- It is not a copyright registration. In Europe copyright arises from creation itself: there is nothing to register. What is missing in practice is not the right — it is proof of the date.
Where the law stands
Article 41(1) of the EU eIDAS Regulation forbids a court from dismissing an electronic time stamp on the sole ground that it is electronic: it must be assessed on its merits. In March 2025 the Marseille court held that blockchain timestamps were admissible and sufficient to establish copyright ownership. The case law in detail →
Frequently asked
+My work was just stolen. Is this still any use?
For that one piece, barely: certifying now does not prove you were first before. For everything else you have made, yes — and now is the right moment. Your layered source file also remains the most telling item against a flattened image.
+Should I certify every illustration?
No. Certify what matters: a series you are about to sell, a delivered commission, a world you have been building for years. A ZIP archive lets you pass many through at once.
+Do you see my images?
Never. The SHA-256 fingerprint is computed inside your browser; sixty-four hexadecimal characters are all that reaches us. We could reconstruct nothing from that.
+Does it help against an accusation of using AI?
Yes — indirectly but seriously. A layered source file, dated before the controversy, is far more convincing than an explanation. It is one of the most frequent uses we see.
+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 artwork →Solid prior art evidence — not a substitute for a copyright registration.
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