Building Trust for a Post-AI Internet
The internet is changing fast. AI tools can generate articles, posts, and even research at industrial scale -- and that is creating a crisis of trust. Audiences, platforms, and publishers can no longer be sure where content came from, who created it, or whether it has been manipulated after the fact.
Verified Provenance exists to solve that. We are building an open trust infrastructure for digital content -- a simple, verifiable way to prove who created something, when it was created, and that it has not been changed.
This is not a company or a product. It is a public-good project, powered by open-source tools, cryptographic standards, and community-driven development. Our mission is to make authenticity as easy to verify as a domain name or SSL certificate.
Our Principles
- Open by default All tools and standards are free and open-source.
- Portable and interoperable Proofs travel with your content, independent of platforms.
- Privacy-first No original content is shared -- only cryptographic fingerprints.
- Future-focused Designed to work across formats, industries, and technologies.
Verified Provenance is more than a tool -- it is a movement toward a more trustworthy digital future.
Simple, verifiable, and built on open standards
WHO
Digital signatures prove the identity of the creator.
WHAT
Hashes and Merkle trees guarantee the content has not been altered.
WHEN
Blockchain timestamps prove when the content existed.
Create as usual
Write or publish your content -- nothing about your workflow needs to change.
Sign and record
AuthorProvenance, the first tool in our ecosystem, signs your work with a private cryptographic key and records its state in Git.
Anchor the proof
A compact fingerprint of your content history is timestamped on the Bitcoin blockchain via OpenTimestamps, creating a permanent, public proof of its existence.
Generate a manifest
A small provenance.json file links your content to its creator, its integrity, and its timestamp -- all without revealing the original content.
Verify anytime, anywhere
Anyone with the content and manifest can independently confirm authenticity -- no third parties required.
The result is a verifiable chain of trust around your content: proof of authorship, proof of integrity, and proof of timing -- all in one portable package.
Who can benefit from Verified Provenance
For Writers and Journalists
Prove you wrote what you published. Protect your work from plagiarism and show readers that your reporting has not been altered.
For Researchers and Academics
Timestamp research data, papers, and findings to establish precedence. Provide cryptographic evidence of your discoveries and protect against data manipulation.
For Businesses and Publishers
Demonstrate editorial integrity. Provide readers, clients, and regulators with proof that your content is original, authentic, and unchanged.
For Creators and Digital Artists (coming soon)
From scripts to artwork, Verified Provenance can secure creative work against theft, prove originality, and establish ownership -- even before publication.
In every case, provenance is not just about protection -- it is about credibility. It is how you prove that your content is real in a world full of synthetic noise.
Answers to common questions
What is Verified Provenance?
Verified Provenance is an open, standards-based system that lets anyone prove the origin, integrity, and creation time of digital content. It uses cryptographic signatures, hashes, and blockchain timestamps to build verifiable proof of authenticity.
What is AuthorProvenance?
AuthorProvenance is the first open-source tool in the Verified Provenance ecosystem. It is a simple command-line utility that creators can use today to generate and verify provenance manifests for written content.
Does this require special software?
No. AuthorProvenance uses existing, widely supported tools like Git, GPG, and OpenTimestamps. You can install and run everything locally without special infrastructure.
Do I have to share my content publicly?
No. Your original content never leaves your device. Only cryptographic fingerprints are shared, which cannot be reverse-engineered to reveal the original work.
Is this only for written content?
AuthorProvenance focuses on text, but the Verified Provenance framework is designed to support all forms of digital creation -- including code, video, audio, and multimedia -- in the future.
Is it free?
Yes. Verified Provenance and all official tools are free and open-source. You can run them locally, self-host them, or integrate them into your own systems.
Can I use this for legal or copyright purposes?
While not legal advice, the cryptographic evidence produced by Verified Provenance can strengthen copyright claims and support IP enforcement by demonstrating authorship, originality, and precedence.
Start proving your work in minutes
- Install AuthorProvenance
Clone the project from GitHub and install the required tools.
git clone https://github.com/jamesburchill/verifiedprovenance.git
cd author
pip install opentimestamps-client- Sign and track your content
Use Git and GPG to sign your work and track changes. - Anchor and generate a manifest
Run a single command to timestamp your work and create a verifiable provenance file. - Publish with confidence
Share your content and its proof knowing anyone can verify its authenticity.
Why this matters
In a world where anyone can generate content, proof of origin is your competitive edge. Verified Provenance makes that proof simple, portable, and permanent.
Your content. Your signature. Your timestamp. Publicly verifiable forever.