Provineer is a great solution for creatives - whether student, freelancer or creative director - to securely save, store, share and protect their intellectual property all in one place. With Provineer, users can upload IP via desktop or mobile and share it directly through the platform with teammates, clients or employers to verify ownership, authenticity and provenance. For enhanced protection, users can revoke access to their IP or update it instantly, ensuring their work is protected and current from the moment it’s created.

What is Provineer?

Provineer is a three step process. First, users upload their idea, work or design as either a Jpeg, Png, Pdf, Mov or Mp4. Second, users claim ownership of their uploaded idea, work or design by adding “Proof.” And third, users verify their identity and ownership of their Provineer upload via an E-signature. Once completed, all uploads and information are stored on the Provineer platform, recorded as a verifiable, unique, unalterable transaction on Flow blockchain and E-certificate and available for instant sharing via your personal dashboard.

How do I Provineer my idea, work or design?

As we are in Beta, you can currently Provineer a Jpeg, Png, Pdf, Mov or Mp4 of your idea, work or design. Once uploaded you are able to add “Proof” to claim and authenticate ownership of your idea, work or design.

What can I Provineer?

Think of proof like IP insurance. If you’re a writer, proof could be a Word Document with initial ideas that you created for a short story or novel. If you’re a graphic designer it might be an Ai, Psd or Figma file that you used to create a design. If you're a fashion designer it could be a PDF of sketches or photographs of a toile or prototype documenting your work. It all depends on your design process, but regardless of how you create we recommend you upload proof, and the more the better! We accept most file formats but if you have a question regarding one feel free to get in touch <a href='https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe4-01dod4IjM1LE3Fm5ICTzmaujFY1lhuF02OeQBN3jF-PhQ/viewform' target='_blank'>here</a>

What is “Proof?”

We use a combination of decentralized storage and Flow blockchain to create Provineer’s proof of ownership. For each user upload, a unique NFT and certificate is created which contains all asset identification and information needed to prove user ownership. Once uploaded, your NFT and all information contained within cannot be edited or deleted by anyone, and is publicly and independently verifiable following the verification steps in the section titled, “How do I verify the authenticity of a Provineer upload?”

Depending on the size of your files combined with the process used to secure your Provineer files to Flow blockchain, it can take a few seconds to a few minutes so don’t exit the page while uploading. 

Your monthly upload limit is set by your plan type. If you run out of uploads, you can upgrade your payment plan or wait until next month, when your number of uploads will automatically renew. If you delete your file from our system, it will not affect your monthly limit. For example: if you are on a Starter plan when you upload and delete a file, you will still have 4 uploads left. Therefore, we advise our users to carefully select all the files before uploading them to Provineer.

If you make a mistake uploading your idea, work or design on Provineer you can either erase the upload via your dashboard and create a new upload or simply upload a new version with the correct files or information.

How does Provineer work?

No, you do not need a wallet to use Provineer, all you have to do is create an account using your email or Gmail address.

Do I need a wallet?

All Provineer NFTs are securely stored or ‘custodied’ for your benefit in a hosted digital asset wallet. At all times your assets belong to you and remain readily available for instant sharing. At no point are we able to delete or alter your Provineer NFTs in any way, ensuring all information and assets are as they were the day they were created.

All uploaded IP assets are stored using SOC -2 compliant, encrypted, decentralized object storage designed for 100% durability. Multiple encryption layers protect your assets at all times and are encrypted in both transit and rest.

Where is each Provineer user NFT stored?

Each Provineer certificate contains a timestamp recording the time and date in which the certificate, with all information regarding uploads and user, was generated. This data is immutable proof that the transaction and file information existed at the stated time. DISCLAIMER: Due to the nature of how blockchain transactions are settled, the timestamp stated on your certificate may vary slightly, usually in minutes, between the time of upload and the settled transaction. This is entirely normal.

Timestamps.

To create an unalterable claim of ownership for every Provineer upload, we have partnered with Flow blockchain, one of the cleanest, most energy efficient blockchains. A transaction on Flow uses less energy than posting on Instagram, and as Provineer grows we will continue to evaluate our business practices ensuring we utilise the most sustainable processes available.

Is Provineer environmentally friendly?

All Provineer uploads can be shared via the user dashboard. To grant access to a third party, the user must enter the recipient's email address using the Share function and choose the level of access. Third parties can only be given access to the main upload file, not proof. This is to ensure that the user’s work in progress files are always protected, only accessible to the user and never accidentally shared. In the event that proof must be shared, the user can download it and send it via email to a third party with corresponding E-certificate which can be used to verify its authenticity on-chain. 

"Once a third party is granted shared access, they are able to view and download the main file. The user, at any time, can revoke access. All files shared with a user can be found in the “Shared with me” section in the dashboard." 

"Instructions on how to verify the provenance and authenticity of a Provineer NFT, file or user can be found in the next section,“How do I verify the authenticity of a Provineer upload?”"

Ok I’ve uploaded my IP to Provineer. How do I share it?

To verify your Provineer NFT on Flow Blockchain you will need to locate your transaction ID which can be found on your uniquely generated Provineer certificate, and navigate to the Flow Mainnet transaction tool <a href="https://www.flowdiver.io/" target="_blank">https://www.flowdiver.io/</a>.

For added security, each user NFT and certificate contain a “hash” of the file, generated using a 256-bit Secure Hash Algorithm. This hash will be a string of letters and numbers that will look similar to this: 5bee829720ac3aa816ace378a069887e3b8756d3cc….

To verify that a file shared or downloaded from Provineer is authentic, upload the file using tools like <a href="https://emn178.github.io/online-tools/sha256_checksum.html" target="_blank">SHA256 File Checksum Tool</a>. This will generate a hash that, if authentic, will match the “main_sha256” hash found within the Provineer certificate or the Provineer NFT transaction on Flow blockchain, verifying its authenticity. 

To verify the owner of a Provineer file, copy the “email_salt” number from the Provineer certificate and add it to the front of the email address supplied by the user. An Example: If the email_salt is “123456789” and the user confirms their email is “adam@design.com,” paste “123456789adam@design.com” into <a href="https://tools.keycdn.com/sha256-online-generator" target="_blank">a tool like this</a> and press “Generate.” This will generate a hash of numbers that, if authentic, will match the “email_sha256” hash listed in the NFT and Provineer certificate.

How do I verify the authenticity of a Provineer upload?

A “hash” in a Secure Hash Algorithm is an elegant way to secure data that needs to be publicly available but privately verifiable. Unless a user has access to all original information needed to verify a hash, it is nearly impossible to decipher, which is why the User ID, Main File and Proof information are listed as hashes on each Provineer certificate. For added security, a new hash is randomly generated for the User ID, Main File and Proof with each upload, making it nearly impossible for a third party to track what, when and how frequently a user uploads and protects intellectual property.

How does a Secure Hash Algorithm prove authenticity?

Provineer is built to help you strengthen, defend, protect and securely share your intellectual property, but, files uploaded via Provineer do not supersede and / or nullify any trademarked, copyright, or patented intellectual property or right that has been or is in the process of being granted by any government, governmental or trade body that certifies intellectual property rights. Unfortunately, we are not above the law, but we know that proof is what matters and we have built Provineer to help you document your IP proof as easily as possible.

FAQ