What Are RFC 3161 Timestamps?

An RFC 3161 timestamp is a digital certificate issued by a trusted third party (called a Timestamping Authority) that proves a piece of data existed at a specific point in time. It is the same standard used by the U.S. Armed Forces, European courts, and international trade agreements.

When a Certify subscriber creates a presence record, Borderly sends the record's hash to an accredited Timestamping Authority (DigiCert). The authority returns a signed timestamp proving that the record existed at that exact moment.

The timestamp is stored alongside your record. You can access, download, and include this proof data in your reports and verification portals. On the Protect tier, timestamps are not created — records use device-signed verification instead.

Without a trusted timestamp, someone could argue that your records were created after the fact. An RFC 3161 timestamp from a recognized authority is strong evidence that your records are contemporaneous — created at the time the events happened, not reconstructed later.