Timestamping Photos & Video — Proving What You Had, When
Photos and videos are the easiest things to edit and the hardest to argue about later. A Bitcoin timestamp turns "I think I had this photo then" into "here's the block."
Why stamp media?
- Copyright / theft — prove you shot the photo before someone else published it.
- Insurance & claims — timestamp damage photos, receipts, and condition reports on the spot.
- Journalism & evidence — prove a video existed before publication, unchanged.
- Creative releases — prove a design or render existed before a client deadline.
- Personal records — family photos, property, anything where "when" matters.
How it works for media
1. Stamp the original file (the raw .jpg/.mp4, not a screenshot of it). The hash is over the exact bytes — so the original, unedited file is what gets protected.
2. Keep the original untouched — any re-encode, resize, or re-save changes the bytes and breaks the match.
3. Verify later — upload the original + .ots to satohash.io/verify or opentimestamps.org. If it confirms, those exact bytes existed before the block.
Practical tips
The honest caveats
- The timestamp proves those bytes existed — it doesn't prove where they came from or who took them (EXIF metadata + device records help there).
- Editing a photo after stamping breaks the proof for the edited version — stamp again after edits if the edited version matters.
- For maximum strength: stamp immediately, keep the original file byte-identical, and keep the
.otsfile safely (it's the key to verification).
Stamp your photos before you share them: satohash.io/stamp