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Service: Proof of Existence

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ewemoa:
Any one tried Proof of Existence?

service to anonymously and securely store an online distributed proof of existence for any document. Your documents are NOT stored in our database or in the bitcoin blockchain, so you don't have to worry about your data being accessed by others.

All we store is a cryptographic digest of the file, linked to the time in which you submitted the document. In this way, you can later certify that the data existed at that time. This is the first online service allowing you to publicly prove that you have certain information without revealing the data or yourself, with a decentralized certification based on the bitcoin network.

The key advantages are anonymity, privacy, and getting a decentralized proof which can't be erased or modified by anyone (third parties or governments). Your document's existence is permanently validated by the blockchain even if this site is compromised or down, so you don't depend or need to trust any central authority. All previous data timestamping solutions lack this freedom.

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via http://www.proofofexistence.com/about

mouser:
Very nice find -- such a think could be useful to prove you came up with an idea on a certain date.

Renegade:
It's fairly expensive to use. 5 mBTC is still $2.

Deozaan:
I don't get it. Why would anyone need to proof they have a file? I can create just about any file I want on my computer. Just because it exists doesn't mean it's of any use.

EDIT: Reading comprehension FTW. Okay, so it's not about just proving that it exists, but that it DID exist at some point in the past. But still... How is that useful? Maybe for copyright/patent claims? I can prove that I had a file with the idea 5 years ago? But I could just make a bunch of documents and name them secretidea1.txt secretidea2.txt supercoolprogram.exe and timestamp them, and then when someone has a real cool idea/program I can claim I came up with them years ago and point to secretidea1.txt as "proof"

I still don't get the use for this service.

MilesAhead:

I still don't get the use for this service.
-Deozaan (October 15, 2014, 06:26 PM)
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I think I get the idea.  By storing a hash of the file you do not risk the file being decrypted by someone getting a copy from the service.  But for it to be any use you have to produce the file, then generate a hash identical to the stored one to prove your claim the original contents was not altered in any way.  You still have the problem of a safe place to store the file.  But it seems better than stuff like making a copy and mailing it to a lawyer or other schemes where the information is stored somewhere not under your control.

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