Blockchain Technology in Zoho Sign: Ensuring Document Integrity with Ethereum Timestamping

Introduction 

In a digital era, document integrity and authenticity are very important. Zoho Sign, an advanced digital signature solution, uses blockchain technology to support authorship and signaling without risk of back-dating after execution. First, Zoho Sign integrated Ethereum Public Blockchain. A signed document can have a public timestamp established through the Ethereum blockchain using a transaction hash. With public timestamps, users can verify the accountability of signers and have an immutable record that provides evidence of document integrity. By using blockchain, an immutable, tamper-proof distributed technology, the record of a signed document’s existence, and time signed was permanently verified. Although Zoho Sign now uses the Bitcoin blockchain to provide OpenTimestamps for this service, the original concept of identity integrity within blockchain remains a continued service in Zoho Sign. 

Features of Blockchain Timestamping in Zoho Sign 

1. Publicly Verifiable Record: Where the document signing event is recorded on a public blockchain (originally Ethereum, now Bitcoin) the time and existence of a document will be verifiable on the blockchain, if the individual has access to the blockchain network. 

1. Immutable Timestamp: After a timestamp is recorded on the blockchain it can never be changed. Hence there is a permanent record where any discerning individual can determine when the document was signed. 

1. Knowledge of Document Condition: The timestamping on the blockchain serves as a cryptographic anchor. Therefore, the document has the ability to prove ownership and signature date information. After a document has been timestamped signing, any changes to the document will create a different cryptographic hash, automatically indicating that the document has been tampered with. 

1. Non-Repudiation: A blockchain timestamp enhances the capacity for non-repudiation by providing a publicly verifiable statement of when the signing event occurred, in addition to this protection provided with the digital signature. 

1. Ease of Use: For the user, enabling blockchain timestamping within Zoho Sign is a simple toggle in account settings. The platform takes care of timestamping in the background and does not require users to take any additional actions in the typical signing experience.  

1. Hash Storage, Not the Document: Zoho Sign only stores the cryptographic hash of the document on the blockchain—not the contents of the document. The cryptographic hash ensures the privacy and confidentiality of the signed document, and a hash is a unique, fixed-length alphanumeric string that is composed from the document’s data.  

Conclusion 

Adding blockchain (using Ethereum timestamping to start) to Zoho Sign was an innovative way to improve the security and reliability of digitally signed documents. With a public blockchain we could take advantage of immutability and transparency of a public blockchain to provide a user, yet another way to verify documents and who signed it and when. Despite the underlying blockchain network we used for timestamping changing over time, our intent is simple: We want to use this decentralized technology to create a tamper-proof record of document signing. Nothing about this feature changes the reliability and security of using digital signatures on Zoho Sign – and it clearly illustrates the potential of blockchain technology to improve the reliability of digital processes outside of cryptocurrencies! And we think the features and capabilities Zoho Sign offers provides real value in terms of document management and legal validity.