Use case
Blockchain Timestamps for Writers
Anchor a manuscript before submission, a draft before sharing with a co-writer, a chapter before posting to a blog. Permanent, independently verifiable proof of when you wrote it.
The problem writers actually face
Manuscripts get circulated. Drafts get forwarded. Submissions get read by editors, agents, contest judges, and assistant readers you’ll never meet. Months or years later, when something with a familiar premise appears in print or on screen, the question is always the same: can you prove you had it first?
File creation dates can be altered with one terminal command. Email submission timestamps can be questioned. Word document metadata can be edited. Without a tamper-evident timestamp anchored to an independent source, the burden of proving prior creation falls on you, and the available evidence is usually weaker than you’d expect.
What blockchain anchoring does for a manuscript
ProofAnchor computes a SHA-256 hash of your manuscript file in your browser and writes the hash to the Polygon blockchain. The manuscript text never leaves your device. The 64-character hash is the only thing transmitted, and the original file cannot be reconstructed from the hash.
The on-chain timestamp is permanent and public. Anyone — an editor, an attorney, a court — can verify the timestamp against the Polygon blockchain without trusting ProofAnchor. If the manuscript file is altered in any way, the hash changes and the new file no longer matches. The anchored version is locked.
How writers use it in practice
Anchor before submitting to an agent or editor
Anchor the manuscript file the day you finish a complete draft. The timestamp predates every submission, query letter, and exchange that follows. If the work later appears with someone else's name attached, the anchor is your proof of authorship and date.
Anchor before sharing with a co-writer or beta reader
Co-writing collaborations and writers' workshops involve sharing in-progress drafts. Anchor your version before any share. The timestamp documents what you brought into the collaboration and when, separating your contribution from anything added later.
Anchor before posting drafts to a blog or Substack
Public posts on Substack, Medium, or a personal blog can be scraped, copied, or republished. Anchor the draft file before posting — the anchored version is your proof of the original text before any platform-side modifications.
Anchor screenplay drafts before festival or contest submission
Screenplay contests and festivals receive thousands of submissions. Reader pools can leak ideas. Anchor each draft version before submission so the timestamp predates every reader who handles the script.
Anchor research and source material
If your manuscript depends on original research, interviews, or source material, anchor those files separately. The chain of timestamps documents both the research process and the resulting manuscript.
Anchor pre-publication for AI training disputes
If your work appears to have been ingested by a language model's training set, the anchor is verifiable evidence that the text existed before the model's training cutoff. This is increasingly relevant for writers whose published work appears in scraped datasets.
Does this replace copyright registration?
No. US copyright exists automatically when a work is fixed in tangible form, which a digital file satisfies. Registration with the Copyright Office gives you access to statutory damages and attorney’s fees in federal litigation. A blockchain timestamp doesn’t replace those legal mechanics — it gives you independent proof of when the file existed, which is useful alongside registration, before registration, and for the work you’ll never register.
Many professional writers register their published novels but never register the dozens of drafts, query letters, and submission packages that preceded publication. Anchoring is cheap enough to apply to all of them.
Pricing
Free tier: 5 lifetime anchors. Pro: $9.99/month for 50 anchors per month. Business: $49.99/month for 500 anchors with API access for automated workflows. See pricing.