Generated imagery
Software can now produce realistic images and video in seconds. How a file looks no longer tells you how it was made.
Media provenance and verification
Trust what you see.
OneTime helps establish the origin, integrity and provenance of photos and videos, with cryptographic evidence and verification records anyone can inspect.
OneTime verifies where media came from, not whether what it shows is true.
Verification results for a video captureExampleOneTime Verified
- Who
Maya Chen
maya.chen@example.com
Signed in with Google
- When
- OneTime Verified reported timestamp (UTC)Friday October 16, 2026, 18:14:00 UTCDevice capture timestamp (local time)Friday October 16, 2026, 14:14:00 EDT
- Where
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Description
Street interview recorded outside a downtown transit hub.
Creator-provided description · Video · 43 seconds
- Device
Google Pixel 9 Pro
Android · OneTime Camera
- Verification checks
- Signed provenance — Valid
- Content — Unchanged since signing
- Origin — Captured with OneTime
- Capture time — Bounded by OneTime’s server
- Server history — Checkpoint witnessed
Fictional example. Signing in shows control of an account, not legal identity; the place and local time are as the device reported them; provenance shows where media came from, not that what it shows is true.
Why provenance matters
Media travels faster than its context.
Photos and videos reach millions of people within minutes, and their origin is often lost on the way.
Edited and re-shared files
Media is cropped, edited and re-posted until its source can no longer be traced.
Misattribution
Authentic footage is reused with the wrong place, date or author attached.
Decisions in minutes
People decide what to publish and share quickly, often with no way to check where a file came from.
Provenance does not replace judgment. It gives people a verifiable record of where media came from and what happened to it, so their judgment rests on evidence.
How it works
From capture to evidence anyone can check
Capture with provenance
The OneTime app records photos and videos with provenance created on the device. The media itself never leaves the phone.
Sign and preserve the evidence
OneTime authors the provenance record and signs it. The signed record travels inside the file as Content Credentials.
Verify against trusted keys
A verifier checks the signatures, confirms the file still matches what was signed, and compares it with OneTime’s records.
Read the result and its limits
The result says what the evidence shows, and what it cannot show.
What OneTime checks
Evidence you can inspect
Signed provenance
Provenance records signed by OneTime and carried in the file as Content Credentials, the open C2PA standard.
Content integrity
A cryptographic check that the file still matches, byte for byte, what was signed.
Post-quantum signatures
An ML-DSA-65 countersignature beside the classical one, so records can stay verifiable as cryptography advances.
Device and capture evidence
A hardware-backed device key, a capture time bounded by OneTime’s server, and location stated with its level of assurance.
Verified accounts
Proof that the creator controlled a social account, published only when the creator chooses to. Account control is not legal identity.
Server history integrity
Signed checkpoints of OneTime’s own records, designed to be witnessed independently on the Hedera network.
Verification on this website
Coming soon: check a file here, from any browser, without the file ever leaving your device.
What verification does not mean
Clear about what the evidence proves
A OneTime result is evidence about a file’s origin and history. It is not a verdict on the events it shows.
OneTime can help establish
- Where a file came from: the app, device and account evidence recorded when it was made
- Whether the file still matches what was signed
- Which edits were declared after capture
- Whether OneTime’s own records agree with the signed evidence
OneTime does not establish
- That the events shown are true, or happened as they appear
- That every element in a scene is genuine
- The legal identity of the person behind an account
- That media without OneTime evidence is fake. Most media carries no provenance at all.
For the people behind the camera
Made for photographers and journalists
OneTime can be a great tool for photographers, journalists, independent journalists and citizen journalists: anyone whose work depends on others being able to check where a photo or video came from.
Photographers
Capture with OneTime and your photos and videos carry signed provenance: when and how they were captured, and with which OneTime account. Anyone can check it.
Journalists
Give editors and readers a way to check the origin of the media you publish, alongside your reporting.
Independent journalists
Without a newsroom behind you, signed provenance helps your work speak for itself: anyone can check where it came from and how it was captured.
Citizen journalists
When you are the one who was there, OneTime helps others check that the footage came from your capture, not from wherever it was reposted.
OneTime verifies where media came from and how it was captured, not whether what it shows is true.
Who it is for
For people who need to know where media came from
Newsrooms
Bring provenance into verification desks and editorial decisions.
Media organizations
Publish media with provenance that audiences and partners can check independently.
Content creators
Give your work a verifiable origin, and choose whether your verified accounts appear with it.
Institutions
Handle photos and videos as evidence, with a record of where they came from.
These are the people OneTime is designed for. It does not describe existing customers or partners.
Technology and transparency
Evidence that does not ask for blind trust
OneTime is built so that every result rests on evidence others can check: an open standard for content credentials, published trust keys, signed checkpoints of OneTime’s own server history, and an independent public witness for those checkpoints.
See what the evidence says.
Learn how verification works, open the verification tool, or talk to us about using OneTime in your organization.