Bitcoin Timestamping vs. Traditional Notaries
You need to prove that a document existed on a certain date. You have two very different ways to do it: a traditional notary, or Bitcoin timestamping. Here's an honest comparison.
The traditional notary
A notary is a licensed person who witnesses signatures and dates documents. The system works — but it has limits:
Bitcoin timestamping
Satohash (via OpenTimestamps) replaces the date-proof part of notarization with mathematics:
Honest caveats
- A notary also verifies identity (who signed) and capacity (they understood what they signed). Bitcoin timestamping proves when a file existed — it does not prove who signed it.
- For contracts, courts in the US (ESIGN Act, UETA) and EU (eIDAS) recognize electronic timestamps as evidence of existence. Combined with digital signatures, you can cover identity too.
- Bitcoin timestamping is not a replacement for a notary in every legal context — it's a complement that makes the "this existed then" claim mathematically undeniable.
The winning combo
Many professionals use both: a notary for identity/signature, plus a Bitcoin timestamp for an immutable, globally-verifiable date record that survives any office closure, fire, or database error.
Stamp your next important document free: satohash.io/stamp