Woleet Sign: The Bitcoin-Based eSignature App
Meet Woleet Sign, a refreshingly different newcomer in the eSignature world. The new web application is developed by Woleet, a French startup created in 2016 that specializes in using Bitcoin as a global public notary to store digital proofs of signed documents at scale. Woleet initially started as a time-stamping solution to attest the existence and integrity of digital files, but later evolved to address digital signatures and identity management. The resulting product Woleet Sign leverages a combination of all these technologies to significantly transform the flourishing electronic signature industry with Bitcoin.
Same, But Different
At first sight, Woleet Sign looks just like any other eSignature solution: a simple user interface lets you select the file to be signed, enter contact information for all required signers, and customize additional options (e.g. determine the signing order, add observers, attach a personalized message to the signature request, etc.). But a closer look reveals remarkable differences: the entire process is surprisingly short and quick to complete. But why is that the case? No dark magic at play, but powerful optimization instead: Woleet Sign significantly simplifies the process by removing specific steps from the traditional workflow. For instance, there is no need to put the usual placeholders for initials in the document.
The file itself never leaves your computer and is not modified during the process. As a result, making signature requests with Woleet Sign is 2 to 3 times faster compared to other signature tools in the market. What’s more, Woleet Sign supports all digital files, regardless of size or format: PDFs, videos, mp3s, zip archives and so on – you get the picture! And the best part? Woleet Sign preserves your privacy and document confidentiality as files are never uploaded to the company servers!
The signing process exhibits even more noticeable differences. Signers receive an email containing a signature link which leads to a signature page. Signers are then asked to provide the original file corresponding to the request in order to complete the process. And this is where Woleet Sign truly shines: by selecting the same file on their own computer, signers can independently verify that they are about to sign the exact same file, rather than some other version – even if only slightly modified! This means that signers have full confidence about the validity and integrity of the document without having to resort to a time-consuming review of the entire file. Users thus save a lot of time and benefit from additional protection against malicious last-minute modifications from the requester.
Digital Trust Re-Invented With Bitcoin
At the end of the process, digital proofs are published in the public Bitcoin blockchain using the Woleet platform. The platform is extremely scalable by allowing to aggregate potentially hundreds of thousands of proofs within just a single Bitcoin transaction. All signers receive a signature attestation that contains a detailed audit trail and all associated proof receipts, which can then be verified completely independently. The original file and the proofs contained in the attestation is all you need to verify eSignatures produced with Woleet Sign. The verification process is made future-proof on purpose: thanks to open data standards and the publicly-accessible Bitcoin blockchain, you are not dependent on Woleet or any other service to verify signatures.
With this new product, Woleet wants to challenge the way digital trust is managed by companies internationally. The use of Bitcoin as a public digital notary is a way to democratize what the company call “trust minimization” – the opposite of the traditional operating model of digital trust companies where everything is centralized, where documents have to be fully uploaded to their platform (thereby increasing the risk of leaking sensitive information), and where signatures vanish once the service stops operating. “We want to empower companies to take control over their sensitive data, and adopt digital trust via Bitcoin as a new standard for direct B2B communications” says Gilles Cadignan, CEO of Woleet. The choice of Bitcoin as the underlying blockchain for settlement is also very crucial: “We want our proofs to be resilient, durable, and openly verifiable. Bitcoin is the public blockchain that offers the greatest assurances about its future state and accessibility, much more than any other blockchain – public or private”.
Explore the new eSignature app here: signature.woleet.io.