Introducing Signatura: document signing on the blockchain

Today we are excited to launch the public beta of Signatura, our digital signature and notarization platform.

Time ago we released its private beta and signed its first document. Since then, we have been squashing bugs, testing and even undergoing some radical UX changes, to finally reach the moment when we are comfortable to open the beta up to the general public.

So from now on there are no more invite codes, feel free to give it a try and send us any feedback you have, we really appreciate it. :)

Introducing Signatura

Signatura allows multiple parties to jointly sign documents, legally binding and notarizing them in such a way that no one can repudiate it’s date, content or signatures.

Documents are encrypted, uploaded and their required signers selected, granting them immediate file access. Participants authenticate themselves, download, decrypt, review and digitally sign the documentation. Finally, when fully signed, documents are notarized.

It’s useful on contracts, company workflows or any paperwork between parties; but it can also be used by oneself to record immutable proofs, like digital works attribution or integrity checks.

We offer a web platform for personal and small business use, and provide a set of libraries to access our API for corporate and government clients that want to integrate their existing software.

What’s the difference with existing solutions?

Most platforms for signing documents provide electronic signatures, but that’s not exactly the same as a digital signature. An electronic signature could be a photo of your hand-written signature, while a digital signature solution like ours uses a mathematical scheme to demonstrate its authenticity. In short, digital signatures are more secure and enforceable.

Furthermore, Signatura draws on the concept we described months ago on using the Bitcoin blockchain as a digital signature scheme. With it, we can provide features not available on traditional document signing solutions. Among them, not requiring trust in third parties: neither for timestamping (legal edge), nor for storing signatures (they will keep being valid and verifiable if the service is offline or discontinued).

What’s next?

We are already working on some exciting new features. For example, our blockchain-enforced smart signing functionality could make it possible to require a minimum quorum of signers, or set deadlines, for a document to be notarized.

On a more technical side, we plan to support current credentials from certificate authorities (CAs), not only using ECDSA (secp256k1) as this beta, but also RSA (like most existing certificates). For that, we are working with RSK Labs (our next-door office neighbours) to have RSA opcodes on their smart contract platform.

Additionally, supporting physical security tokens, publicly launching our API and incorporating more optional identity validations, are also part of the roadmap.

We will try to keep you updated on our next steps, but please contact us about any possible feature you may need.