“The first word of your work, engraved forever.”
Your work gets copied?
Prove you created it first.
Incipite anchors your file's fingerprint on a permanent digital ledger. Strong prior art proof, enforceable in court, without your work ever leaving your device.
1 free certification for life · No credit card · File 100 % local
Prior art proof — not a copyright registration
Your file never leaves your browser · PDF certificate: immediate · Bitcoin anchor: ~30 min
Legal weight
Recognised by courts
If someone copies your work — a photo, a beat, a design, a text — this certificate lets you establish before a court that you created it first, before any legal proceedings begin. Recognised by European courts since March 2025.
EU landmark ruling
“The ownership of patrimonial copyright (…) is established by the two blockchain timestamping records.”
Tribunal Judiciaire de Marseille · 1st Civil Chamber · 20 March 2025 · Case 23/00046 · AZ Factory v Valeria Moda
The first court in Europe to directly uphold blockchain timestamp evidence for copyright prior art. Applicable as an EU reference under eIDAS Art. 41.
Read the ruling →United Kingdom — Property Act 2025
“A thing (including a digital asset) can be the object of personal property rights.”
Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 · Chapter 3
The UK formally recognised digital assets — including cryptographic proof records — as a third category of property. Combined with CDPA 1988, Incipite certificates constitute strong prior art evidence before UK courts.
Legal scholarship
Recognised by legal scholars
Researchers in law across three countries have analysed the evidentiary weight of blockchain timestamping. Their conclusions converge.
“A blockchain-based timestamp provides solid proof of anteriority that a particular piece of data existed at a specific point in time — creating a permanent, tamper-proof record anchored to a distributed ledger.”
Primavera De Filippi & Aaron Wright
CNRS · Cardozo Law School
Blockchain and the Law: The Rule of Code
Harvard University Press, 2018
“Blockchain-based timestamping constitutes a sui generis form of evidentiary record, whose probative weight derives from its mathematical integrity rather than institutional authority.”
Massimo Durante
Università degli Studi di Torino
The Computational Turn in Law
Ratio Juris, vol. 32, 2019
“A hash anchored to a distributed public ledger provides stronger temporal proof than traditional notarial mechanisms in many jurisdictions.”
Rolf H. Weber & Ulrike I. Baumer
Universität Zürich — ITSL
Blockchain as a Legal Institution
Computer Law & Security Review, 2020
“Blockchain offers a technological solution for definitively dating intellectual creations, whose admissibility as a form of evidence under French law is no longer seriously contested.”
Florence G'sell
Sciences Po Paris
La preuve à l'heure de la blockchain
Revue Lamy Droit de l'immatériel, 2019
The certificate
Your proof, in hand.
The PDF certificate generated by Incipite is designed to be produced before any jurisdiction. Each field has precise probative value.
- Full name of the depositor (verified account)
- Certification date and time (UTC)
- SHA-256 hash of the work
- Anchor reference in the ledger
- Instant verification QR code
- Required legal notice
Depositor
Alice Moreau
Certification date (UTC)
15 April 2026 · 14:32:07
SHA-256 fingerprint
a3f7d2c1e9b4581f6a00d2e8c3b79f41
88e2c5a7d3f019b6
Status
✓ Bitcoin anchor confirmedThis certificate attests to the prior existence and integrity of the file at the stated date. It does not constitute an intellectual property title.
Incipite vs registered mail, notary, legal commissioner
An honest overview of all options to prove prior creation of a work, with their respective strengths and limitations.
View the comparison table →Creators
For creators like you
Musicians, illustrators, writers — three profiles, one shared urgency: prove you created it first, before someone else claims it.
Independent musician or composer
Before uploading a track or sharing it with collaborators, anchor its fingerprint in 30 seconds. A dated, legally weighted proof — without going through collecting societies.
See this use case →Freelance illustrator or designer
Every new collection is anchored before it goes public on Instagram or Behance. If a plagiarism claim arises, the PDF certificate is your timestamped, independently verifiable proof.
See this use case →Author or screenwriter
Before submitting a manuscript to agents or publishers, certify the original version. Solid prior art evidence, without a solicitor appointment or notary fee.
See this use case →Pricing
Simple & transparent
Free
£0
Discover with no commitment
- ✓1 free certification for life
- ✓Instant PDF certificate
- ✓Public verification page
Per deposit
Launch£1.99
£2.99/ depositFor occasional creators
- ✓No commitment
- ✓Instant PDF certificate
- ✓Email confirmation
- ✓Personal history
Pro
Launch£4.99
£7.99/ monthFor prolific creators
- ✓Unlimited deposits
- ✓Premium PDF certificates
- ✓Full dashboard
- ✓CSV history export
10 prepaid credits · no expiry · just £1.30 / cert
30 prepaid credits · no expiry · just £0.93 / cert
Founder
50 spots left out of 500 / 50
£49
lifetimeLifetime access · Unlimited deposits · Founder badge · Direct support of the project
Commitment: 5-year minimum service guarantee — pro-rated refund if discontinued early.
Your questions
Everything you need to know before certifying
The 5 questions we get asked most often. Have another one? Write to us — every message is read.
Is this recognised by courts?
Yes. Cryptographic timestamping on the Bitcoin blockchain via the open source OpenTimestamps protocol constitutes strong prior art proof, enforceable in court. The EU's first direct ruling (TJ Marseille, 20 March 2025) confirmed its probative value, applicable under eIDAS Art. 41.
In the UK, the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 formally recognises digital assets as a third category of personal property, reinforcing the legal standing of cryptographic prior art evidence.
Important: Incipite proves that your file existed at a specific date. It is not a copyright registration — it is strong prior art evidence.
If Incipite disappears in 5 years, is my proof lost?
No, your proof remains intact. This is actually the core design principle of Incipite.
The Bitcoin blockchain is a decentralised ledger maintained by thousands of machines worldwide — entirely independent of Incipite. Every certification also gives you an .ots file (OpenTimestamps receipt) delivered by email: it contains the full cryptographic proof in an open standard format.
Anyone can verify this file without using Incipite — using the official client ots verify your-file.ots or by uploading it to incipite.com/verify. As long as Bitcoin exists, your proof exists.
Is my file sent to your servers?
No, never. The SHA-256 cryptographic fingerprint of your file is computed directly in your browser, in JavaScript.
Only this 64-character fingerprint — entirely independent of the original content — is transmitted to Incipite and to the OpenTimestamps protocol. There is no way to reverse-engineer the source file from this fingerprint. Your work never leaves your device — even during certification.
How does it compare to copyright registration or a solicitor?
All three achieve the same legal goal (proving prior creation) but at very different costs:
- ·UK Copyright Service / recorded delivery — dated evidence, limited probative value, requires physical storage.
- ·Solicitor's declaration / notarial certificate — £150–£500 per document. Strong probative value but prohibitive cost for regular use.
- ·Incipite — from €0 (first certification free), publicly verifiable proof, no expiry, anchored on Bitcoin forever.
Full comparison on our comparison page.
How long between payment and the final proof?
PDF certificate: immediate (under 5 seconds after the fingerprint is computed). It is displayed on screen and available for download right away.
Definitive Bitcoin anchor: 1 to 2 hours on average — the time it takes for the blockchain to mine a block containing your fingerprint. You receive an automatic second email once this anchor is sealed, with the OpenTimestamps receipt .ots to keep alongside your original file.
The delay depends on the Bitcoin network's cadence (probabilistic). This is precisely what gives the proof its value: no central authority can accelerate or challenge the inscription.
Can I certify a ZIP archive with multiple files inside?
Yes, a ZIP file is accepted like any other file. The certificate will prove that this archive existed at the stated date — with its exact unchanged content.
Important: the certificate attests the existence of the archive as a whole, not each file individually. If you ever need to prove the prior creation of a single work within the ZIP (e.g. one specific photo in a dispute), it will be harder to establish than with an individual certification.
Practical recommendation: for high-value works (key photos, original beats, commercial texts), certify file by file. A ZIP is appropriate to protect the existence of a collection at a given date — an album before signing, a portfolio before submission.
A question not on this list?
Write to legal@incipite.com — every message is personally read and answered within 24 business hours.
Process
Before you publish, engrave proof that this work is yours.
Three steps, 30 seconds, no complex registration.
Drop your file
Drag any file (PDF, image, code, video…). It never leaves your device — only its digital fingerprint is processed.
The fingerprint is anchored
A unique SHA-256 hash is computed then submitted via OpenTimestamps — open source technology anchored on the Bitcoin blockchain, legally recognised.
Receive your certificate
An official PDF certificate is generated immediately. Final confirmation arrives by email within 1 to 2 hours — the time it takes for the Bitcoin blockchain to seal your anchor.
Independently verifiable.
Incipite is built on OpenTimestamps, an open source protocol in use since 2016. The proof is anchored directly on the Bitcoin blockchain — your certificate remains valid even if Incipite were to disappear tomorrow.