Ballpoint Provenance

Ballpoint Studio

About this app

Proof of person.

Ballpoint signs what you make on your phone (writing, photos and voice notes) with a key that is created inside your phone's secure hardware and never leaves it. Each signature can be verified independently: that a person was present, that it happened live, on this device, and that the content is intact since it was signed.

What you can do

• Write: type in the app and sign the text. By default only a fingerprint of the text (a hash) leaves your phone, not your words.
• Approve: when Ballpoint Pen on your computer, or Ballpoint Code in VS Code, asks for a signature, your phone shows exactly what is being signed (a document, a save or a code commit) and asks for your fingerprint, face or PIN.
• Voice: record a voice note and sign it.
• Verify: check a recording, clip, file or piece of text against its record.
• Call: video calls where each person can show a live check at the start. Calls go directly between devices; the video does not pass through our servers.
• Scan a code: use this phone as a second device. Scan a code on another screen to confirm it, or hold the phone up to a camera there for a live check that ties the two together.
• Photo: take a photo that is hashed and signed the moment it is captured, with Content Credentials inside the file. The picture stays on your phone; only its fingerprint is sent.
• Coming to Android: signed video recording and signing files you already have (both on iPhone today).

What a record does and does not say

A record shows that someone able to unlock this phone was present and approved exactly this content at that time, on this device, and that it has not changed since. It does not name you unless you choose to, and it does not claim that no software helped you make the content. Every record states its own limits on its page.

Private by design

No account. No ads, no trackers, no analytics. Keys stay in your phone's secure hardware. Photos and recordings stay on your phone: only their fingerprints (hashes) are sent.

Records open at verify.ballpoint.app. Questions: [e-mail].

What’s new

Verify on video calls the same way you verify a recording: a short face clip and your fingerprint or PIN, with the motion sweep as an optional stronger check. Your phone can now act as the camera when verifying a call. Clearer wording for phones that use a PIN.