Proof Stamp — Existence Without the Overshare

What this does (in plain English)

Think: receipt for ideas. “I had this draft/offer/policy on Aug 21, 2025.”

Quick Start (60 seconds)

1. Paste your text (a draft, terms, config, whatever).
2. Click Stamp → you get something like: ps:v1:sha256:9afc2f7f1e2d...d84
3. Anchor it in time (pick one or more):
   • Paste the stamp at the bottom of your post or doc.
   • Drop it in a GitHub gist / commit message.
   • Email it to yourself with the subject “Proof Stamp.”
   • Paste it in a public comment (X, Mastodon, blog comment).
   • Archive that page (Wayback / archive.today) for a neutral timestamp.

Later, when questioned: paste the original text + the stamp into the tool → Verify. If it matches, you’ve got a clean “I had this then” receipt.

When to stamp (use cases)

• Drafts & claims — headlines, hot takes, “we’ll ship X by Y.”
• Pricing & offers — “Founding plan terms as of Aug 21, 2025.”
• Policies & prompts — moderation rules, system prompts, SOPs.
• Benchmarks — model settings + exact input text.
• Negotiation snapshots — bullet-point terms before sharing details.

If it matters later what you said and when you said it, stamp it.

How verification works

• You reveal the text (now or later).
• Paste the text + the old stamp into the tool.
• The tool recomputes the fingerprint.
• Match = Proof of existence.
• Bonus points if your stamp lives somewhere with a public timestamp (email headers, commit date, Wayback capture).

Note: This proves existence, not authorship or ownership by itself. It’s a receipt, not a courtroom. Pair it with identity (post under your handle, sign a commit, etc.) if you need that layer.

Best practices (avoid “gotcha” mismatches)

• Keep a canonical copy of the exact text you stamped. Tiny edits change the fingerprint.
• Normalize before stamping: remove trailing spaces, use plain text, avoid smart quotes ping-pong.
• Include context lines at the top of your text before stamping, like: Title: Who Signed This Reality? Author: VibeAxis Date: 2025-08-21 Then stamp that block. Future-you will thank you.
• Anchor publicly: gist link, email to self, or a post footer:
  Proof stamp (Aug 21, 2025): ps:v1:sha256:9afc…d84

What counts as a “good” anchor?

• A place with its own timestamp (email, git, public post).
• An archive URL of that place (Wayback/Archive.today).
• Optional: include a tiny screenshot showing the stamp + clock.

Limits (honest ones)

• Doesn’t prove authorship alone—just that someone had that text then. Use identity (your account, your domain) to connect it to you.
• Any edit changes the stamp. If you must update, make a new stamp and keep the old one in the history.
• If you stamp only a short excerpt, you can only prove the excerpt, not the full doc.

Fast recipes

Blog draft receipt

1. Paste your draft → Stamp.
2. Append the stamp to your draft as a footer.
3. Email the stamp to yourself (subject “Draft receipt”).
4. Publish later with “Stamped on Aug 21, 2025.”

Offer terms

1. List bullets for the offer.
2. Stamp → post the stamp in the pricing notes or a gist.
3. When terms change, create a new stamp + change log.

Benchmark run

1. Paste model+params+sample input.
2. Stamp + attach to the run notes.
3. Put stamp + run ID in the repo README or PR.

FAQ (micro)

• Does this leak my text? No. Stamps are one-way fingerprints.
• Can someone fake my stamp? They’d need your exact text. SHA-256 collisions for normal text aren’t practical.
• What if I lose the text? The stamp can’t recover it. Keep a copy.
• Courts? It’s a solid trail, not a legal service. Pair with identity + archives for stronger claims.