Firm Title: Easy Proof
Founders: Rafael Cordón and Christian Lowenthal
Date Based: February 2023
Location of Headquarters: Guatemala
Quantity of Bitcoin Held in Treasury: N/A
Variety of Workers: 6
Web site: https://www.simpleproof.com/
Public or Personal? Personal
Within the age of digital information, how do we all know that information has not been tampered with? Rafael (Rafa) Cordón has a solution.
In efforts to protect the integrity of actual info — particularly authorities paperwork — he created Easy Proof, an organization that safeguards official information through the Bitcoin blockchain.
Many got here to know the corporate final 12 months when it was employed to stop fraud in Guatemala’s presidential election. Nevertheless, Easy Proof’s mission is greater than that.
“We uphold the knowledge integrity of public information,” Cordón instructed Bitcoin Journal.
“Elections are usually not actually our focus. They had been simply the primary use case. We’re targeted on [safeguarding] public information — info that is being produced by governments,” he added.
So, how precisely does Easy Proof uphold info integrity?
How Easy Proof Works
Easy Proof leverages Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd’s OpenTimestamps protocol, which makes use of hash features to timestamp info onto the immutable blockchain.
Cordón describes the method in layperson’s phrases as such:
“First, we take the hash of the doc, which might be considered the digital fingerprint. Each doc has a really distinctive digital fingerprint, which is a string of characters.
Bitcoin transactions have area for arbitrary textual content, which is named the OP_RETURN perform. That is analogous to if you’re writing a examine, there’s a bit line on the underside proper that claims ‘Memo’ the place you may write arbitrary textual content that reminds you of what this examine is for. The OP_RETURN perform might be considered a memo area inside a Bitcoin transaction.
Inside this ‘Memo’ area, we embrace the hash, the digital fingerprint. This hash is then included within the Bitcoin transaction. When the transaction is revealed, it will get included in a block, after which it is saved immutably. So, you will have this digital fingerprint saved inside a Bitcoin block that lives in perpetuity.”
Cordón clarified {that a} hash isn’t included for every particular doc however that the hash in an OP_RETURN is the “root hash” of a Merkle tree, which is a tree of hashes for a number of paperwork.
This manner, OpenTimestamps can attest to an indefinite quantity of paperwork with a single OP_RETURN entry. Merkle bushes assist you to effectively show {that a} single piece of knowledge was within the tree.
Remember, although, that Easy Proof doesn’t make sure the authenticity of the info it helps to retailer on the Bitcoin blockchain. This nonetheless falls on the federal government or the physique overseeing –say– an election.
Within the case of the Guatemalan presidential election, virtually 200,000 volunteers and observers from totally different political events watched over the voting course of in efforts to stop fraud, the small print of that are outlined within the documentary Immutable Democracy:
Who Is Utilizing Easy Proof?
Cordón and his crew are in talks with a lot of totally different authorities officers and personal firms that work with governments who’re involved in using Easy Proof.
“There are two kinds of prospects,” defined Cordón. “One is public officers who’re involved about upholding info integrity of their establishments who may get in hassle if info of their establishments is modified with out authorization, and the opposite is know-how distributors who’re employed by governments to generate or course of info who’ve the identical downside of ‘I do not wish to be accused of modifying info.’”
Easy Proof has just lately secured a second buyer, the identification of which Cordón didn’t disclose. The shopper has been contracted by its authorities to develop an utility for managing public information, in keeping with Cordón.
“They will not be making their Verification Pages publicly accessible,” Cordón mentioned.
“As a substitute, they will retailer their proofs privately, with the choice to disclose them if wanted to authenticate paperwork sooner or later. This strategy serves as a type of digital insurance coverage,” he added.
Cordón believes this strategy of making non-public, verifiable proofs will develop into more and more essential not only for governments however for different establishments and people, as nicely.
Concerning his work with public officers, Cordón careworn one level particularly.
“To ensure that Easy Proof to work, the authorities need to need [to use] it,” defined Cordón.
“That was the case in Guatemala. The authorities wished to make use of it as a result of they had been involved of being accused of election fraud,” he added.
Whereas some could have speculated that Easy Proof may have helped forestall voting fraud within the latest Venezuelan presidential election, Cordón disagreed.
“In Venezuela, it’s very probably that the election authorities did not wish to have transparency from the start,” mentioned Cordón.
Easy Proof solely works if our prospects need transparency. If they do not need transparency, they are not going to need [our service],” he added.
Cordón went on to share that Easy Proof appears to work with officers from established democracies world wide.
“I might by no means wish to work with an undemocratic regime,” he shared.
Advancing Easy Proof
Earlier this 12 months, Carlos Toriello (Carliño) joined the Easy Proof crew.
Toriello oversaw a vote audit of the Guatemalan presidential election, the outcomes of which Easy Proof helped defend.
“He did the audit as a citizen, as a part of a civil society motion known as Digital Witness, or Fiscal Digital,” defined Cordón. “Digital Witness was taking the paperwork that had been being revealed by the election officers and verifying them towards Easy Proof to examine that they had been genuine.”
Toriello crowdsourced a crew through StakWork, a chore app that enables individuals to earn bitcoin for finishing duties.
Hundreds of individuals labored from their telephones to examine the information of votes versus what had been recorded to the Bitcoin blockchain through Easy Proof, incomes sats for his or her work.
“Digital Witness confirmed that the election outcomes had been 99% correct,” mentioned Cordón.
Toriello is now working to have Easy Proof protect the integrity of the outcomes of an election in a US county.
He has been reaching out to US-based Bitcoin meetup teams, encouraging them to assist their county make use of Easy Proof in its subsequent elections.
“The meetups are type of competing to see who’s the primary county within the US that implements this,” mentioned Cordón.
As a prize, Easy Proof is prepared to doc the adoption of its know-how within the US through a brief movie, like Immutable Democracy.
“We will help them doc this in a great way by doing a documentary or sending a movie crew to provide them the chance to point out the world that they are the primary individuals to do it,” mentioned Cordón.
Past Easy Proof
Whereas Cordón is blissful to have created a software to assist struggle disinformation, he’s additionally nicely conscious that Easy Proof is only one of many defenses that we are going to want towards it.
“We’re very involved with the way in which that AI instruments are evolving,” mentioned Cordón. “We want issues like Easy Proof to be able to defend us towards AI misinformation.”
Cordón additionally talked about that authorities staff need to be aware of how they produce paperwork and believes that digital signatures can play a task in authenticating paperwork as they’re revealed.
“We’re advising governments to a minimum of use digital signers like YubiKey,” mentioned Cordón. “So, when someone scans a doc, the one that controls the YubiKey ought to signal it to supply the signature after which it is included into the blockchain.”
Even with know-how like YubiKey, although, Cordón stays involved.
“[There’s difficulty in] proving who generated info and whether or not this digital info was based mostly on an enter completely from the actual world or whether or not it was based mostly on enter that was already manipulated,” defined Cordón.
“How are we gonna be capable of show that?” he requested with a stern facial features.
“It is an unresolved query that’s going to develop into essential within the coming 10 years.”
