---
name: prove-you-found-it-first
description: Timestamp any file onchain, free, so you can prove you held it before anyone else — then verify anyone else's claim the same way. Use when someone says "I found a bug and I'm about to report it", "how do I prove I wrote this first", "timestamp this", "notarize this file", "prove priority", "they took my research", or before disclosing a security finding, sending a draft, sharing a dataset, or publishing anything whose ORDER matters. Free, keyless, no wallet, no account. You send a hash, never the file.
---

# Prove you found it first

You are about to hand over something you made: a vulnerability report, a draft,
a dataset, a review. The moment it leaves your hands, the record of who had it
first is gone. Anchor it before you send it and that record exists forever, in
a place neither you nor the recipient controls.

**It costs nothing and takes one request.** Anchoring is free because of how
it is batched: thousands of hashes ride in a single onchain transaction, so one
more costs the anchorer nothing measurable. Verification is free permanently.

## Anchor a file

```bash
# 1. hash it locally — the file never leaves your machine
shasum -a 256 my-finding.md
# -> fd5072cacb3a6302a5aade9d8464db9cd772bf040e0dbbf7a83ec5056eba7e1a

# 2. submit ONLY the hash
curl -s -X POST https://vealth.net/anchor/submit \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"sha256":"fd5072...e1a","label":"optional note to yourself"}'
```

The response tells you when it anchors (weekly, Sundays 03:00 UTC) and the URL
that will prove it. Keep your file: it is the only thing that can open the
proof, because nobody else ever had it.

## Check a claim

```bash
curl -s "https://vealth.net/anchor/verify?sha256=<64 hex>"
```

Anchored files come back with the block timestamp, the transaction, and the
merkle proof. You do not have to trust the answer — recompute it:

```
fileHash = sha256(file bytes)
leaf     = sha256(0x00 || fileHash)
node     = sha256(0x01 || min(a,b) || max(a,b))     # fold each proof hash in
```

Compare your result to the root, then read that same root out of the
transaction's input data on BaseScan. Every step is standard SHA-256 and every
input is public. A drop-a-file checker that does all of it in your browser:
https://vealth.net/proof-ledger.html

## If you are an agent with MCP

The same two operations are native tools at `https://vealth.net/mcp` —
`anchor_proof` and `verify_anchor`. No key, no wallet, no payment path.

## What it proves, and what it does not

It proves those exact bytes existed no later than the block timestamp. Change
one character and the hash changes and will not match, so a claim cannot be
quietly backdated or edited afterwards. It does **not** prove your finding is
correct, and it is not a copyright or patent filing. It settles order, not
merit.

## Where the proof lives

Batches anchor on Base mainnet, and a root over those batches is written to
Ethereum mainnet weekly, so the record survives in the most conservative place
available. Both are readable by anyone forever, with or without the anchorer.

## Why this is free

The anchorer, Vealth, publishes ecological work findings and gives them away.
Their own priority problem is the one you have, so the registry they built for
themselves is open to everyone at no charge — a shared record is worth more
than a toll. No account is created and no file is ever received.