My share link expired. Can you still help?

Ask the issuer for a fresh link first, because a capture of a live verification is worth much more than a capture of an error page. If the issuer can reissue, send us the new link and we seal it within 24 hours. If nobody can reissue, we seal the credential file you hold plus any evidence of what the viewer used to show, and we describe the situation accurately in the package rather than dressing it up.

Why would a digital credential stop verifying at all?

Three ordinary reasons. The share link carries an expiry date that the holder sets. The issuer seal has its own validity period, and long-term verification depends on validation data still being available. And institutions change credential platforms, which retires old URLs. None of it means the credential was invalid.

Is a PDF export enough on its own?

It is better than nothing and weaker than people assume. A PDF export usually contains a verification link, which is the part that expires, and the PDF itself carries no independent proof of when it was produced. Sealing the PDF fixes the missing proof of date, and capturing the link preserves the verification while it still resolves.

What exactly do you capture from the viewer?

The rendered screen with the verification result visible, the HTML behind it, the network layer showing which server answered, and the exact time in UTC, cross-checked against network time rather than the clock on a laptop. All of it goes into the package with the hashes.

Can you do this for a badge or a professional certification?

Yes. The mechanism is the same for a university credential, an industry certification, a training badge or a licence lookup: capture the issuer's own verification screen while it is live, seal it together with the file, timestamp the result.

Does this work if the issuer used a blockchain credential?

Yes, and the two layers are complementary. A blockchain credential proves issuance against a chain record, provided the issuer key and the verification service are still resolvable. Our package proves what the verification showed on a given date regardless of what happens to the issuer afterwards.

For holders of digital diplomas, badges and certificates

The link that verifies your credential has an expiry date.

Digital credentials made forgery much harder and created a new dependency: the proof now lives on somebody else's server, behind a link that has an end date. In 2026 ProofSnap captures the live viewer and seals your credential file with it, delivered in 24 hours and verifiable offline long after the link goes dark.

The live viewer captured, exactly as it renders

Your credential file sealed alongside it

Qualified eIDAS timestamp and Bitcoin anchor

A copy with no expiry date on it

Seal your credential · $59.99 See how it works

credential viewer / share link

This share link has expired

Ask the holder for a new link, or contact the issuing organisation.

Credential issued2019

Share link valid untilset by the holder

Issuer seal validityfinite

Your sealed copyno expiry date

Secure payments via Stripe Open-source verification (MIT licence) Disig a.s., whose timestamping service is listed as qualified on the EU Trusted List Bitcoin OpenTimestamps anchor

Written by Radim Motycka, founder and lead engineer of ProofSnap, who builds the hashing, signing and timestamping pipeline described on this page.

What do you do when the link that proves your credential expires?

A digital credential is verified through a link, and links have end dates: holders set their own share link expiry, issuer seals carry a validity period, and universities issuing certified electronic diplomas give graduates an emailed download link that expires in 14 days. ProofSnap captures the live viewer and seals the file, in 24 hours, for $59.99 in 2026.

Four reasons a working credential stops verifying

None of this means the credential was invalid. It means the proof was rented rather than owned.

The holder side expires

European Digital Credentials let you customise the expiry date of a share link, including the one embedded in a PDF export. That is a useful privacy feature and a quiet liability: the link in an application you sent last year may already be dead.

The issuer side expires

A credential is signed with an electronic seal that has its own validity period. Unless the validation data was preserved with the credential, checking an old seal means fetching that data from services that may no longer answer.

The platform moves

Institutions change credential providers, providers are acquired and services are retired. The credential you earned survives the migration. The URL printed on your CV usually does not.

Reissue depends on someone else

At best you ask the issuer for a fresh link and get one. At worst the issuing office no longer exists, and there is nobody to ask. Either way the decision is not yours.

How we seal a digital credential

The work is in capturing the live viewer properly, with everything that proves where it came from, not in taking a screenshot.

Pay and upload

Pay the one-time fee of $59.99 and send the credential file, the PDF export, or whatever your issuer gave you.

Send the working link

Send us the share link or viewer URL while it still resolves. If it needs a code or a one-time token, tell us and we will coordinate the timing with you.

We capture and seal

We capture the viewer as it renders, including the verification result on screen, with DNS, TLS and HTTP headers recorded at the same instant. Then we hash, sign, timestamp and anchor everything in the package.

You get the package

Within 24 hours you receive one signed ZIP that shows what the issuer's own viewer said, on that date, about your credential.

If the link has already expired, ask the issuer for a fresh one before ordering. A capture of a live, passing verification is worth far more than a capture of an expiry notice.

What is inside the package

One ZIP. The screen, the source behind it, the network evidence and the cryptography that binds them together.

proofsnap_credentials_2026.zip

files/diploma.pdfyour diploma, byte for byte

files/transcript.pdfyour transcript, unchanged

files/good_standing_letter.pdfand anything else you send, under its own name

files/web_verification_capture.zipthe official verification page, sealed: screenshot, HTML, DNS, TLS, headers, UTC time

provenance_certificate.pdfthe human-readable report

chain_of_custody.jsonevery step, in order

forensic_log.jsontamper-evident hash chain

manifest.jsonSHA-256 of every file

manifest.sigRSA signature over the manifest

publickey.pemthe key needed to check that signature

manifest.json.tsreIDAS qualified timestamp

eidas_validation.jsondata to validate it years later

manifest.json.otsBitcoin anchor

verification/verify.shoffline check on macOS and Linux

verification/verify.ps1the same check on Windows

verification/VERIFICATION_GUIDE.txthow to run it, in plain language

The package carries both timestamps. Everything you send sits in files/, under its own name, so a package with more documents simply contains more files.

The capture of the official screen travels as its own sealed package inside the ZIP, with its own manifest and chain of custody. Two independent layers, no clashing file names, and each layer can be checked on its own.

A screenshot of the viewer with the verification result visible

The HTML behind that screen, so the content can be read without trusting the image

DNS, TLS and HTTP headers captured at the same moment, proving which server answered

Your credential file itself, preserved unchanged

A SHA-256 manifest signed with a per-package RSA key

A qualified eIDAS timestamp and a Bitcoin OpenTimestamps anchor

Verification scripts that check the hashes, the signature and the timestamp offline, without any platform

getproofsnap.com/verify/index.html

1Manifest signature valid

2All file hashes match

3Qualified timestamp valid, 2026-09-13 10:22 UTC

4Bitcoin anchor present, deep check with the ots client

Example output. Whoever receives your package runs these checks themselves, with no ProofSnap account and no payment.

Your credential keeps whatever cryptographic protection the issuer gave it. This adds a second, independent layer that does not depend on the issuer still existing.

What the package proves

Four things the package proves, each of them checkable by the person you send it to.

That the issuer's viewer displayed this verification result, on this date, from this domain

That your credential file existed in exactly this form at that moment

That nothing in the package has changed since it was sealed

That the record survives the link, the platform and the issuer

What the alternatives cost when a link stops resolving

Almost everything in this market is sold to institutions. Very little of it is sold to the person holding the credential.

Route	Published price	What it gives you
Ask the issuer for a new share link	usually free	The right first step, when the issuing office still exists and answers.
Credential platform subscription, issuer side	not sold to graduates	Credential platforms are sold to institutions. Where a holder can extend a link at all, the credential still lives on the issuer's platform.
Online notarisation, one provider's published price	€79	Notarises a document online. Says nothing about the online verification of the credential.
Apostille bundle for a credential	€119	Legalisation for cross-border use, on paper, in days.
ProofSnap certified package	$59.99	The live verification screen and your file, sealed together and verifiable offline for as long as you keep the ZIP.

Prices are the providers' published figures, checked in September 2026. Each route answers a different question. This one answers the question about your own documents: what you hold, unchanged, proved as of a date you can point to.

Digital credential certification

Delivered within 24 hours of receiving your files, one flat fee, no subscription

$59.99

About €52 or £44 at current rates.

Every document you send, preserved byte for byte inside the package
A capture of the official verification screen or register record, when your credential has one
SHA-256 for every file and an RSA-signed manifest
A qualified eIDAS timestamp and a Bitcoin OpenTimestamps anchor
A chain of custody document recording every step, and the evidence report as a readable PDF
Verification scripts that check the hashes, the signature and the timestamp offline, so the recipient never has to call us
An email delivery note when the package is ready

Seal your credential · $59.99

The upload page opens as soon as payment goes through. Questions first? Write to support@getproofsnap.com.

Expired links, answered

The extension

Would you rather do it yourself?

The extension does the same job locally: capture the credential viewer on your own machine and certify the file without sending anything to us.

The ProofSnap side panel with the File Certifier open

The side panel holds the File Certifier, the evidence language and the qualified timestamp toggle.

File Certification in the extension

Drop your diploma, transcript and any completion letters into the panel and seal them in one package: SHA-256 for every file, a signed manifest, a chain of custody document and a report PDF. One by one, or all of them in a single combined package.

How File Certification works

Add an eIDAS SnapPack

Qualified in the EU

A qualified electronic timestamp bound to your sealed package, issued by Disig a.s., whose timestamping service is listed as qualified on the EU Trusted List. Under Article 41(2) of the eIDAS Regulation it enjoys, in proceedings in the European Union and the EEA, the presumption of the accuracy of the date and time it indicates and of the integrity of the data it is bound to.

$6.99

1 stamp

$24.99

5 stamps

$49.99

10 stamps

Bought inside the extension as a one-time purchase, with no auto-renewal. Credits stay on your account.

Install ProofSnap for Chrome

Free to install. The package on this page exists for people who would rather hand the job over and receive a finished file.