Protecting a document is not the same as proving it exists

When people talk about “protecting” a document, they usually mean one thing:
preventing others from accessing it.

Encryption, passwords, access control, secure storage — all of these are about confidentiality.

But there is another dimension that is often overlooked.

Protection is not only about access

You can encrypt a file perfectly and still be unable to prove that it existed at a specific point in time.

If someone challenges your authorship, your idea, or your work, encryption alone does not help.
It only proves that you have something, not when it existed.

This is where a different kind of protection appears.

Protecting existence, not access

Protecting existence means being able to prove that a document existed at a given moment — without revealing its content.

This is done by computing a cryptographic fingerprint (hash) of the file and anchoring that fingerprint in time.

No content is shared.
No file is uploaded.
Only the proof remains.

This kind of protection is fundamentally different from access control.

Two complementary protections

To properly protect a document, both dimensions matter:

1. Access protection
   
   Prevents unauthorized reading (encryption, passwords, permissions).

2. Existence protection
   
   Makes the document’s existence verifiable at a specific point in time.

They solve different problems and should not be confused.

A practical example

If you write a document today and encrypt it, you can prove that you possess it — but not when it was created.

If you generate a proof of existence at the same time, you can later demonstrate that the document already existed on that date, even if its content remains private.

A note on tools

Some tools focus on access protection.
Others focus on existence proof.

For example, tools like TimeProofs illustrate this second approach: they create cryptographic proofs of existence without storing files or managing identities.

They do not replace encryption or legal notarization — they complement them.

Why this distinction matters

As more digital content is created, shared, and disputed, the ability to prove existence becomes as important as protecting access.

These are two different problems — and they deserve to be treated separately.

Understanding this distinction helps build better systems, better tools, and better trust.