Zikaron

ZIKARON Desk is an app on your computer that keeps records of your works and files that anyone can check: which content, recorded by whose key, and the latest moment it already existed. With these records you can grant others the use of a work, and whoever receives it can check it on their own computer.

Four things

Record

Drop a file into the app, add it to your ledger, and put it on chain. From then on, anyone can check that the content existed by that moment. See Recording and anchoring.

Grant

Grant a work to an address for a stated period, with terms attached; revoke it when you need to. See Grants.

Present

Pick the records that bear on a matter and export them as a record kit for the other side or an arbiter, or encrypt it to one recipient, who alone can open it. See Presenting records.

Verify

Receive a grant or a record kit and check it item by item yourself, against the public chain and the files you were given; once a kit passes, you can take out its originals. See Verifying.

Two roles

Recorder

Records your own works, issues grants and exports record kits.

User

Receives and verifies other people’s grants, and can sublicense them.

Both roles live in the one app; switch between them at the top of the sidebar. Each has its own key and ledger.

Cost

The app is free and its source is open. Adding to your ledger is free; putting entries on chain costs that chain’s gas, paid in ETH. Several records can go together for the price of one transaction. To try it first, use the free Sepolia testnet.

Your files

Ledgers, settings and received grants are kept encrypted on your computer; your original files stay where they are, and the app records their fingerprints. What goes on chain is a 32-byte number and your sending address. Record names and notes travel with your ledger to whoever you give it to, so write them with care.

For people to judge

Whether two works are alike and who the original author is are for an arbiter to judge, and payment happens elsewhere. The app supplies facts that can be checked; see What a record proves.

The name

Zikaron (Hebrew זִכָּרוֹן) means “memorial”. When Israel crossed the Jordan, Joshua had twelve men each carry a stone out of the river to be set up as a memorial: when the ark of the covenant entered the Jordan, the waters were cut off before it, and the stones were to keep that day in Israel’s memory for ever (Joshua 4:4–7).

Version

The current version is ZIKARON Desk 0.1.5, for Macs with Apple silicon, Windows 10 and 11, and Linux; get it from the download page. The command line that comes with it, and the source, are covered in the developer guide. MIT licence.