On CoinDesk, Daniel Cawrey recently wrote:
The bitcoin block chain is well known for its use as a ledger for digital currency transactions, but it has the potential for other, more radical uses too – uses that are only now beginning to be explored.
The online service Proof of Existence is an example of how the power of this new technology can have applications far beyond the world of finance, in this case, giving a glimpse of how bitcoin could one day have a substantial impact in the fields of intellectual property and law.
Although in its initial stages, Proof of Existence can be used to demonstrate document ownership without revealing the information it contains, and to provide proof that a document was authored at a particular time.
Manuel Aráoz, the developer of Proof of Existence, explains his service here, noting that its key advantages are “anonymity, privacy, and getting a decentralized proof which can’t be erased or modified by anyone (third parties or governments).”