How Bitcoin Can Protect Public Records With Simple Proof

Firm Identify: Easy Proof

Founders: Rafael Cordón and Christian Lowenthal

Date Based: February 2023

Location of Headquarters: Guatemala

Quantity of Bitcoin Held in Treasury: N/A

Variety of Workers: 6

Web site: https://www.simpleproof.com/

Public or Personal? Personal

Within the age of digital information, how do we all know that knowledge has not been tampered with? Rafael (Rafa) Cordón has a solution.

In efforts to protect the integrity of actual info — particularly authorities paperwork — he created Easy Proof, an organization that safeguards official knowledge through the Bitcoin blockchain.

Many got here to know the corporate final yr when it was employed to forestall fraud in Guatemala’s presidential election. Nevertheless, Easy Proof’s mission is larger than that.

“We uphold the data integrity of public information,” Cordón informed Bitcoin Journal.

“Elections should not actually our focus. They had been simply the primary use case. We’re targeted on [safeguarding] public information — info that is being produced by governments,” he added.

So, how precisely does Easy Proof uphold info integrity?

How Easy Proof Works

Easy Proof leverages Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd’s OpenTimestamps protocol, which makes use of hash capabilities to timestamp info onto the immutable blockchain.

Cordón describes the method in layperson’s phrases as such:

“First, we take the hash of the doc, which may be regarded as the digital fingerprint. Each doc has a really distinctive digital fingerprint, which is a string of characters.

Bitcoin transactions have area for arbitrary textual content, which is named the OP_RETURN perform. That is analogous to once you’re writing a test, there’s slightly line on the underside proper that claims ‘Memo’ the place you possibly can write arbitrary textual content that reminds you of what this test is for. The OP_RETURN perform may be regarded as a memo area inside a Bitcoin transaction.

Inside this ‘Memo’ area, we embody the hash, the digital fingerprint. This hash is then included within the Bitcoin transaction. When the transaction is printed, it will get included in a block, after which it is saved immutably. So, you’ve gotten this digital fingerprint saved inside a Bitcoin block that lives in perpetuity.”

Cordón clarified {that a} hash isn’t included for every particular doc however that the hash in an OP_RETURN is the “root hash” of a Merkle tree, which is a tree of hashes for a number of paperwork.

This fashion, OpenTimestamps can attest to an indefinite quantity of paperwork with a single OP_RETURN entry. Merkle timber will let you effectively show {that a} single piece of information was within the tree.

Be mindful, although, that Easy Proof doesn’t make sure the authenticity of the information it helps to retailer on the Bitcoin blockchain. This nonetheless falls on the federal government or the physique overseeing –say– an election.

Within the case of the Guatemalan presidential election, nearly 200,000 volunteers and observers from totally different political events watched over the voting course of in efforts to forestall fraud, the small print of that are outlined within the documentary Immutable Democracy:

Who Is Utilizing Easy Proof?

Cordón and his crew are in talks with plenty of totally different authorities officers and personal corporations that work with governments who’re curious about using Easy Proof.

“There are two kinds of prospects,” defined Cordón. “One is public officers who’re involved about upholding info integrity of their establishments who may get in bother if info of their establishments is modified with out authorization, and the opposite is know-how distributors who’re employed by governments to generate or course of info who’ve the identical drawback of ‘I do not need to be accused of modifying info.’”

Easy Proof has not too long ago secured a second buyer, the identification of which Cordón didn’t disclose. The shopper has been contracted by its authorities to develop an utility for managing public information, in response to Cordón.

“They will not be making their Verification Pages publicly accessible,” Cordón stated.

“As an alternative, they will retailer their proofs privately, with the choice to disclose them if wanted to authenticate paperwork sooner or later. This method serves as a type of digital insurance coverage,” he added.

Cordón believes this method of making personal, verifiable proofs will change into more and more necessary not only for governments however for different establishments and people, as properly.

Concerning his work with public officers, Cordón confused one level specifically.

“To ensure that Easy Proof to work, the authorities should need [to use] it,” defined Cordón.

“That was the case in Guatemala. The authorities needed to make use of it as a result of they had been involved of being accused of election fraud,” he added.

Whereas some might have speculated that Easy Proof may have helped stop voting fraud within the current Venezuelan presidential election, Cordón disagreed.

“In Venezuela, it’s very probably that the election authorities did not need to have transparency from the start,” stated Cordón.

Easy Proof solely works if our prospects need transparency. If they do not need transparency, they are not going to need [our service],” he added.

Cordón went on to share that Easy Proof appears to work with officers from established democracies around the globe.

“I’d by no means need to work with an undemocratic regime,” he shared.

Advancing Easy Proof

Earlier this yr, Carlos Toriello (Carliño) joined the Easy Proof crew.

Toriello oversaw a vote audit of the Guatemalan presidential election, the outcomes of which Easy Proof helped shield.

“He did the audit as a citizen, as a part of a civil society motion referred to as Digital Witness, or Fiscal Digital,” defined Cordón. “Digital Witness was taking the paperwork that had been being printed by the election officers and verifying them in opposition to Easy Proof to test that they had been genuine.”

Toriello crowdsourced a crew through StakWork, a chore app that enables contributors to earn bitcoin for finishing duties.

1000’s of contributors labored from their telephones to test the information of votes versus what had been recorded to the Bitcoin blockchain through Easy Proof, incomes sats for his or her work.

“Digital Witness confirmed that the election outcomes had been 99% correct,” stated Cordón.

Toriello is now working to have Easy Proof protect the integrity of the outcomes of an election in a US county.

He has been reaching out to US-based Bitcoin meetup teams, encouraging them to assist their county make use of Easy Proof in its subsequent elections.

“The meetups are form of competing to see who’s the primary county within the US that implements this,” stated Cordón.

As a prize, Easy Proof is keen to doc the adoption of its know-how within the US through a brief movie, like Immutable Democracy.

“We may also help them doc this in a great way by doing a documentary or sending a movie crew to provide them the chance to indicate the world that they are the primary individuals to do it,” stated Cordón.

Past Easy Proof

Whereas Cordón is completely happy to have created a instrument to assist struggle disinformation, he’s additionally properly conscious that Easy Proof is only one of many defenses that we’ll want in opposition to it.

“We’re very involved with the way in which that AI instruments are evolving,” stated Cordón. “We’d like issues like Easy Proof in an effort to shield us in opposition to AI misinformation.”

Cordón additionally talked about that authorities staff should be conscious of how they produce paperwork and believes that digital signatures can play a job in authenticating paperwork as they’re printed.

“We’re advising governments to not less than use digital signers like YubiKey,” stated Cordón. “So, when any individual scans a doc, the one that controls the YubiKey ought to signal it to provide the signature after which it is included into the blockchain.”

Even with know-how like YubiKey, although, Cordón stays involved.

“[There’s difficulty in] proving who generated info and whether or not this digital info was based mostly on an enter solely from the true world or whether or not it was based mostly on enter that was already manipulated,” defined Cordón.

“How are we gonna be capable to show that?” he requested with a stern facial features.

“It is an unresolved query that’s going to change into essential within the coming 10 years.”