In our constituencies, proving that a file existed exactly like this before a potential controversy is a requirement. “I owned a copy of this file at this date,” I want to be able to say to a court.

Timestamping is how you prove it — and as AI-generated content erodes baseline trust in digital media, it’s becoming critical infrastructure for democracy. Today’s options are inadequate: legal notaries are expensive and inaccessible, commercial services create vendor lock-in, and Bitcoin-based solutions tie essential infrastructure to an energy-intensive system with volatile governance.

Zeitwerk is a free, open-source timestamping service whose trust comes from a coordinated federation of independent 🇪🇺 European operators — with cross-witness transparency built in and no cryptocurrency dependency.

How it works

You submit a hash          →    Witness A signs it
                           →    Witness B signs it
                           →    Witness C signs it
                                    ↓
                           Witnesses cross-verify
                           each other's checkpoints
                                    ↓
                         You receive a proof bundle
                         verifiable offline, forever

Proofs are self-contained. They don’t expire, don’t require Zeitwerk to keep existing, and don’t need any blockchain to verify. A proof generated today will still be checkable in twenty years with nothing but the standalone verifier and the file it certifies.

Zeitwerk is built to interoperate, not replace — it exports RFC 3161 and C2PA-compatible proofs for existing workflows, and can read OpenTimestamps files, so adopting it is an upgrade path rather than a fork.

How it compares

The alternatives, in brief:

• OpenTimestamps — self-hostable and free, but Bitcoin-dependent, with no federation between its calendar servers
• eIDAS Qualified Timestamps — no crypto, but centralised, proprietary, costly, and legally privileged in court (Zeitwerk complements rather than replaces it)
• OriginStamp, Chainpoint (now defunct) — commercial services, varying crypto use, no federation
• Certificate Transparency — federated and free, but scoped to TLS certificate infrastructure only

Who is it for?

Researchers · Archivists · Software maintainers · Journalists · Public institutions · Developers integrating timestamping into their tools

Status

Zeitwerk is in active development, funded by Prototype Fund (2026 cohort). The goal is a coordinated European federation: shared protocols, recruited institutional operators, and a sustainability plan independent of any single funder or company.

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