The document discusses trusted timestamping via the Bitcoin blockchain. It introduces Originstamp, a service that uses the blockchain to prove a data record existed at a certain point in time and has not been manipulated since. A live demo is shown of hashing a document and recording it on the blockchain to establish an immutable timestamp. Potential applications discussed include journalism, research data, insurance, and digital libraries.

1. Trusted Timestamping
via the Bitcoin Blockchain
Prof. Dr. Bela Gipp
www.gipp.com
Bela@Gipp.com
Twitter: @BelaGipp
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2. Agenda
• What is trusted timestamping?
• What are blockchains? Why and how do we use them?
• Our service OriginStamp
• Q & A
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3. Projekt Teams
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Data & Knowledge Engineering Group at Uni Wuppertal OriginStamp AG
www.dke.uni-wuppertal.de www.originstamp.com

4. My Motivation
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5. 24.09.19 Bela Gipp - www.gipp.com 5
Source: http://retractionwatch.com/2016/02/18/peer-reviewer-steals-text-for-his-own-chemistry-paper/

6. Trusted Timestamping
How can you prove that a certain information
existed at a certain point in time?
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7. Trusted Timestamping
How is it currently done?
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8. What is Real? What is Fake?
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Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc5P2bvfl44

9. What does this chart display?
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10. Crypto-currencies...
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11. History
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12. Blockchain vs. Bitcoin
“[Blockchain] is to Bitcoin, what the internet is to email. A big
electronic system, on top of which you can build applications.
Currency is just one.”
—Sally Davies, FT Technology Reporter
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13. Blockchain Concept
The blockchain is a public distributed record (ledger) of all
transactions that occurred in a cryptocurrency network.
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Source: Wikipedia

14. Characteristics
• Distributed
• Secure by design
• Collaboratively maintained
• Open source protocol
• “Cryptographic proof instead of trust” (Nakamoto, 2008) (independent of centralized
authority, banks or governments) à Tamperproof using hashing.
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Source: Wikipedia

15. Why are Blockchains Tamperproof?
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Source: unknown

16. Cryptographic Hash Functions
Hash
function:
Takes any string
as input
Fixed-size output
(we’ll use 256
bits, SHA-256)
Efficiently
computable
Security
properties:
Collision-
resistant
Hiding property
Puzzle-friendly
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17. Hashing Demo via OriginStamp.org
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18. Why does Bitcoin work?
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Security of
blockchain
Value of
currency
Health of
mining
ecosystem

19. With OriginStamp, you can prove that
1
a data record already existed at a certain
point in time
2
and that the record has not been
manipulated since then
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20. Our Approach using the Blockchain
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21. Live Demo
OriginStamp
www.originstamp.org (Research)
www.originstamp.com (Commercial)
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22. How does it work?
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23. Selected Extensions
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API GIT (version-control
system)
Content
Management plugin
for Wordpress
JavaScript plugin for
web-based
applications
Time Machine
Backup (Mac OS)

24. Develop your own Service
• OriginStamp API
• Create an API-Key from
originstamp.org/com
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25. Try yourself (Playstore)
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26. Mobile Phone App
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27. Other Applications
Dashboard camera (“dashcam”) recordings are not considered
“tamperproof evidence”
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28. Dashcam Evidence
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29. System: Frontend
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30. Current Users or Originstamp.org
• Journalists e.g. from
to timestamp photo and video evidence
• Researchers to timestamp
research data and
preprints
• Insurance
• Patent lawyers
• Several timestamps per minute –
4.000.000+ timestamps since 2012
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31. Potential use cases in the are of digital libraries
• Preprinting services such as zenodo & arXiv?
• The Wayback Machine by Internet Archive
• Paper submission systems such as Easychair or the Open Journal
Systems (OJS)
• …
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32. Questions?
Bela Gipp
www.gipp.com
Bela@Gipp.com
Twitter: @BelaGipp
Try yourself:
www.originstamp.org (Research)
www.originstamp.com (Commercial)
Or the Android / iOS app from the App Store
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