Glossary
Trusted Timestamp
A trusted timestamp is a cryptographically verifiable assertion of when a specific piece of data existed, issued by a party independent of whoever actually created the data — rather than relying on a timestamp the creator generated themselves, which they could set to whatever value suited them. Because the timestamping party is independent, the resulting proof carries weight a self-reported timestamp never could: it demonstrates the data existed at or before a specific point in time, verified by someone with no interest in the outcome either way.
This matters wherever proving 'this existed before that date' has real consequences — establishing that a document, a piece of evidence, or a signed record existed at a specific moment, independent of whatever the system that produced it might claim about its own history. A tamper-evident log protects against altering a record after the fact; a trusted timestamp protects against a different question entirely — misrepresenting when the record was originally made.