Without reliable provenance information, many of the digital objects which run the modern information economy become less valuable or even useless. A few examples: 

• A digital credential is not useful if it’s not known who issued it and when
• A compliance record is only useful if it can be proven that it hasn’t been altered
• Medical trial data is suspect when the evolution of the trial cohort is not auditably recorded
• Predictive data is more valuable if the timestamp of updates is reliably recorded
• Predictions are meaningful only if it can be established precisely when they were made 

Often, even the creator of a digital object doesn’t know who made which changes and when, let alone a 3rd party user. Moreover, even when provenance is recorded and shared in full good faith, the complexities of data maintenance and the realities of principal-agent misalignment create irreducible uncertainty for users. A solution is urgently needed to allow trusted provenance information to be shared together with digital objects. 

VALIDITYBASE, a digital provenance platform

VALIDITYBASE (VB) is an open-source digital provenance platform that allows anyone to create create permanent, fully auditable provenance for any digital object cheaply, efficiently, and conclusively. Using VALIDITYBASE, one can show anyone the precise state of a digital object in the past, when the state changed and who changed it. Recording this information in a cheap, reliable and fully auditable manner, unlocks value and novel use cases for digital objects. At scale, this process makes communication about digital objects more trusted and more trustworthy. 

Built on modern open principles, VB’s provenance platform does not require VB to see or handle the underlying digital objects assuring bulletproof privacy, and is not subject to a single point of failure. Even if VALIDITYBASE ceased to exist, your provenance information would live on! 

How it works

VALIDITYBASE enables the recording of digital object provenance by helping anyone publish and verify digital object fingerprint information on permanent and open storage media like IPFS and public blockchains.