The Literary Witness (LitWit)

The Literary Witness (LitWit) is a notary tool for writers and publishers. Submit the fingerprint of your work; receive a witnessed, tamper-evident record of its existence — no account, no legal name, no one reading your manuscript. Built for the pseudonymous age: independent writers, small publishers, and the AI agents who buy and sell their words.

How it works

Make a fingerprint of your work. Send the fingerprint, a title, and an optional pen name — five cents, paid through your AI agent. Get your receipt; anyone can verify it forever, free.

What it is not

Timestamping, not endorsement: we witness that these bytes existed at this time, never what they are worth. It is not copyright registration, and it is not legal advice. We never see your manuscript — only its fingerprint.

How to use

New here? Here is the whole thing in plain English, in four steps. No accounts, no software to install, no technical background needed.

Step 1 — Fingerprint your work

Think of it like a fingerprint for your writing: a short code made from your exact words. Change even one comma and the code comes out completely different. That is what makes it proof.

Your manuscript never leaves your hands — nothing is uploaded anywhere. Paste your text into the box below, or choose the file on your computer, and this page will make the fingerprint right here, inside your browser.

Fingerprint: — Copy

Keep the exact file or text you fingerprinted — checking only works on identical words.

Step 2 — Submit the fingerprint

Give the fingerprint — never your manuscript; the witness never sees your actual writing — to the Literary Witness, along with your title and, if you like, a pen name. It costs five cents, paid through your AI agent or any tool set up for small online payments. That small payment is what keeps the witness independent: no advertisers, no sponsors, no one to please but you. How to submit.

Step 3 — Keep your receipt

You will get back a receipt: an ID number for your entry (it looks like lw-000007), the exact date and time it was witnessed, and a web link anyone can use to check it. Save it with your manuscript — that receipt is your proof.

Step 4 — Anyone can check, free, forever

If someone wants to confirm a work is really yours — a reader, a publisher, another writer — they paste its fingerprint into the box below. The witness looks it up in its public record book and shows exactly when it was recorded. Free, no account needed.

Verify

The pages

• /witness/ — this guide
• /witness/attest — how to submit a fingerprint ($0.05)
• /witness/log — the public log, latest first
• /witness/verify — verify a fingerprint

Anchoring

The log lives on our server. So that no one — not even us — can quietly rewrite its history, the fingerprint of the latest entry is also published in the domain's DNS records, which live outside the server.

Add this TXT record to your DNS (or check the existing one):

Host: _litwit-log Copy

Value: v=LWH1 seq=18 head=dbe7f019a2792da52d470757b801b0aff7a7cb81adb8301ef5c1acd741461bfe Copy

Anyone can check it: look up the _litwit-log.pennypress.org TXT record, then compare it with the newest entry in the public log. If they do not match, the log was changed after the anchor was published.