Company Name Simple Proof
Founders: Rafael Cordón and Christian Lowenthal
Date founded: Feb. 2023
The location of the headquarters: Guatemala
The amount of Bitcoin held in Treasury N/A
No. of employees 6
Website: https://www.simpleproof.com/
Is it Public or Private? You can also contact us by email.
What can be done to ensure that the data in digital records is accurate? Rafael (Rafa) Cordón has an answer.
In efforts to preserve the integrity of real information — especially government documents — he created Simple ProofA company which protects data on the Bitcoin Blockchain.
The company was hired last year by many people who were familiar with it. prevent fraud in Guatemala’s presidential election. Simple Proof has a bigger mission than this.
“We uphold the information integrity of public records,” Cordón told Bitcoin Magazine.
“Elections are not really our focus. They were just the first use case. We’re focused on [safeguarding] public records — information that’s being produced by governments,” he said.
How does Simple Proof ensure the integrity of information?
The Simple Proof of Work
Simple Proof leverages Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd’s OpenTimestamps Protocol that utilizes hashing functions to timestamped information into the immutable Blockchain.
Cordón describes the process in layperson’s terms as such:
“First, we take the hash of the document, which can be thought of as the digital fingerprint. Every document has a very unique digital fingerprint, which is a string of characters.
Bitcoin transactions have space for arbitrary text, which is called the OP_RETURN function. This is analogous to when you’re writing a check, there’s a little line on the bottom right that says ‘Memo’ where you can write arbitrary text that reminds you of what this check is for. The OP_RETURN function can be thought of as a memo space within a Bitcoin transaction.
Inside this ‘Memo’ space, we include the hash, the digital fingerprint. This hash is then included in the Bitcoin transaction. When the transaction is published, it gets included in a block, and then it’s stored immutably. So, you have this digital fingerprint stored inside a Bitcoin block that lives in perpetuity.”
Cordón clarified that a hash isn’t included for each specific document but that the hash in an OP_RETURN is the “root hash” Merkle trees are tree-like hashings of multiple documents.
OpenTimestamps is able to attest an unlimited number of documents by using a single OP_RETURN. Merkle trees are a great way to prove that only one piece of data is in the tree.
Simple Proof does not guarantee the integrity of data stored on the Bitcoin Blockchain. This still falls on the government or the body overseeing –say– an election.
In the Guatemalan election for the presidential elections, nearly 200,000 volunteers and observers from different political groups participated. watched over the voting process in efforts to prevent fraudDetails of the case are given in the documentary Immutable Democracy:
Who is using simple proof?
Cordón and his team are in talks with a number of different government officials and private companies that work Simple Proof has a long history of working with the governments that are interested.
“There are two types of customers,” explained Cordón. “One is public officials who are concerned about upholding information integrity in their institutions who could get in trouble if information in their institutions is modified without authorization, and the other is technology vendors who are hired by governments to generate or process information who have the same problem of ‘I don’t want to be accused of modifying information.'”
Simple Proof has recently secured a second customer, the identity of which Cordón did not disclose. The client has been contracted by its government to develop an application for managing public records, according to Cordón.
“They won’t be making their Verification Pages publicly accessible,” Cordón said.
“Instead, they’ll store their proofs privately, with the option to reveal them if needed to authenticate documents in the future. This approach serves as a form of digital insurance,” Added he.
Cordón believes this approach of creating private, verifiable proofs will become increasingly important not just for governments but for other institutions and individuals, as well.
His work with public officials, Cordón stressed one point in particular.
“In order for Simple Proof to work, the authorities have to want [to use] it,” explained Cordón.
“That was the case in Guatemala. The authorities wanted to use it because they were concerned of being accused of election fraud,” He added.
Simple Proof may not have been the solution that some people thought it was. voting fraud in the recent Venezuelan presidential election, Cordón disagreed.
“In Venezuela, it’s very likely that the election authorities didn’t want to have transparency from the beginning,” said Cordón.
Our customers must want to be transparent for Simple Proof to work. They won’t buy it if they don’t care about transparency. [our service],” he added.
Cordón went on to share that Simple Proof looks to work with officials from established democracies around the world.
“The idea of a ‘never-ever’ is a very appealing one. work Undemocratic regime” he shared.
Advancing Simple Proof
Earlier this year, Carlos Toriello (Carliño) joined the Simple Proof team.
Toriello oversaw a vote audit of the Guatemalan presidential election, the results of which Simple Proof helped protect.
“As a citizen, he performed the audit in conjunction with a movement of civil society called Digital Witness. Fiscal Digital,” explained Cordón. “Digital Witness verified the authenticity of documents by comparing them to Simple Proof.”
Toriello crowdsourced a team via StakWork, a chore app that allows participants to earn bitcoin for completing tasks.
Thousands of participants worked from their phones to check the records of votes versus what had been recorded to the Bitcoin blockchain via Simple Proof, earning sats for their work.
“Digital Witness verified that the results of the elections were 99.9% accurate.” said Cordón.
Toriello is now working to have Simple Proof preserve the integrity of the results of an election in a US county.
He has been reaching out to US-based Bitcoin meetup groups, encouraging them to help their county employ Simple Proof in its next elections.
“They’re competing with each other to be the first country in the US who implements it.” said Cordón.
As a prize, Simple Proof is willing to document the adoption of its technology in the US via a short film, like Immutable Democracy.
“It would be great if we could help document it in an appropriate way, either by sending out a crew or a documentary to allow them to prove to the world they were the first to accomplish this.” said Cordón.
Beyond Simple Proof
While Cordón is happy to have created a tool to help fight disinformation, he’s also well aware that Simple Proof is just one of many defenses that we will need against it.
“AI is a growing concern for us.” said Cordón. “Simple Proof is a great way to guard against AI-based misinformation.”
Cordón also mentioned that government employees have to be mindful of how they produce documents and believes that digital signatures can play a role in authenticating documents as they’re published.
“We recommend that governments use digital signing software like YubiKey,” said Cordón. “When someone scans a paper, the YubiKey user should then sign the document to create the signature, and it will be added into the Blockchain.”
Even with technology like YubiKey, though, Cordón remains concerned.
“[There’s difficulty in] It is important to prove who produced the information. This digital information can be derived from inputs that are purely real or inputs which have been altered.” explained Cordón.
“How will we be able prove this?” he asked with a stern facial expression.
“”It’s a question which is still unresolved and will become important over the next 10 years.”
“This article is not financial advice.”
“Always do your own research before making any type of investment.”
“ItsDailyCrypto is not responsible for any activities you perform outside ItsDailyCrypto.”
Source: bitcoinmagazine.com