Strong provenance

All data stored on Irys has strong provenance.

Strong provenance, which includes permanence, precision, and unconstrained access, is the key to restoring clarity and confidence in the authorship and authenticity of data. It is best illustrated by the provenance trilemma (opens in a new tab) showing the tradeoffs that proto-provenance layers made between data being permanent, precise, and unconstrained.

Permanent

Data uploaded to Irys is stamped with a timestamp and attestation details before being passed to Arweave where it is stored permanently.

Precise

The timestamp assigned to transactions at upload is millisecond-accurate, this is unique in the blockchain space as most blockchains base their timestamps on block time. If the block time is 10 minutes - like with Bitcoin - then the timestamps generated by the chain are accurate to +/-10 minutes.

The timestamp assigned by Irys is recorded in a signed receipt that can be verified by anyone at any time, even if Irys is no longer around. This timestamp can be used to chronologically order transactions.

Unconstrained

Irys provides completely unconstrained provenance, there are no limits on file size uploads and there are no limits on who can verify the data.

Irys is fully permissionless.