For HR operations, compliance teams and staffing agencies
Screening vendors sell you the check. Nobody sells the record of it.
A verification result lands in an inbox, gets summarised into a field in your ATS and the evidence evaporates. In 2026 ProofSnap seals the source page, the candidate documents and the exact time into one record per hire, delivered in 24 hours and still verifiable by an auditor years later.
The source verification page, captured where it was served
Candidate documents hashed and preserved
Qualified eIDAS timestamp and Bitcoin anchor
One tamper-evident file per hire, for audits and for disputes
What was checked, and when
Education verification record
Why the file matters later
If a credential is questioned two years from now, this shows exactly what your team saw, where it came from and on what date, instead of a line in an applicant tracking system that says 'verified'.
Written by Radim Motycka, founder and lead engineer of ProofSnap, who builds the hashing, signing and timestamping pipeline described on this page.
What should an employer keep after verifying a candidate's education?
In regulated hiring the rule is verify and document: accreditation standards require the employer to record that education was verified, and that record is what the organisation relies on when a credential is challenged later. ProofSnap seals what your team saw, from which source and on what date, and delivers it within 24 hours for $59.99 in 2026.
Why the record is the part that goes missing
Every organisation verifies. Very few can show, two years later, what they actually saw.
The documented record is the defence
In regulated hiring the rule is verify and document: healthcare accreditation standards require the employer to record that education was verified, and that record is what you rely on when a credential is challenged later. A status field in an applicant tracking system is a claim, not a record.
Retention rules assume you kept something
In the UK, background screening comes with retention periods, secure storage requirements, destruction procedures and a policy the disclosure service can ask to see. All of that presumes an artefact exists. Screenshots pasted into a case note do not survive that scrutiny.
Candidate-supplied documents are the weak link
Accreditation standards do not accept applicant-routed verification as primary source verification at all: the confirmation has to come from the institution or its recognised agent. Sealing what the candidate sent does not change that. It fixes what they sent and when, so the argument about later alteration goes away.
Disputes arrive long after the hire
The moment the record matters is a regulator inspection, a dismissal that goes to tribunal, or a client asking a staffing agency to prove due diligence on a placed contractor. That is the day a sealed file is worth more than anyone's memory.
How a sealed verification record is produced
One record per hire, or a batch when you are onboarding a cohort. Nothing to install and no integration work.
Order the record
Pay the one-time fee of $59.99 per record. A secure upload page opens straight after payment, so candidate material never travels by email.
Send what you have
The candidate documents, the verification result you received, and the link to the source screen: a registrar portal, a public register, an issuer viewer or a credential viewer.
We capture and seal
We capture the source screen with its HTML and network evidence, hash every file, sign the manifest, add a qualified eIDAS timestamp and anchor it in Bitcoin.
You file it
Within 24 hours you receive one signed ZIP per candidate. Store it with the rest of the hiring file. Anyone can verify it later, offline, without an account. The Bitcoin anchor can additionally be checked online against the blockchain.
Send only what your own policy allows you to send, and keep the record only for as long as your retention schedule requires. We use candidate material once, for the record, and delete our working copies after delivery.
What is inside the record
One ZIP per candidate. Twelve files do the sealing, and everything you send sits in files/.
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.
The source verification page as it rendered, with the HTML behind it
DNS, TLS and HTTP headers recording which host the capturing machine resolved and connected to at that moment
The candidate documents, preserved unchanged and hashed
A SHA-256 manifest signed with a per-record RSA key
A qualified eIDAS timestamp with the data needed to validate it later
A Bitcoin OpenTimestamps anchor, independent of us
Verification scripts that check the hashes, the signature and the timestamp offline, without contacting anyone
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
The file answers the auditor's question by itself: what was checked, from which source, on what date, and whether it has changed since.
What this is, stated plainly
Four things the package proves, each of them checkable by the person you send it to.
That your team saw this exact screen, from this domain, at this time
That the candidate documents existed in this exact form when the record was sealed
That nothing in the record has changed since, down to a single byte
That an auditor, a regulator or opposing counsel can check it without trusting your systems or ours
What the record costs, next to what the check costs
This sits on top of your existing screening, it does not replace it. Think of it as the evidence layer under a process you already pay for.
| Route | Published price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Education verification through a screening vendor | per candidate, varies by vendor | The check itself. The evidence stays in their system, under their retention rules. |
| Clearinghouse-style degree lookup | priced per check | A confirmation, and a PDF certificate. The PDF carries no provable date of its own and no integrity guarantee. |
| Screenshots pasted into the hiring file | free | No provable date, no integrity guarantee, and the first thing challenged in a dispute. |
| ProofSnap sealed record | $59.99 per candidate | The source screen, the documents and the time, sealed into one file you own and can verify offline. |
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.
Sealed education verification record
Delivered within 24 hours of receiving your files, one flat fee, no subscription
For regular volume, write to us and we will set up a standing arrangement instead of one-off orders.
- 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
The upload page opens as soon as payment goes through. Questions first? Write to support@getproofsnap.com.
Hiring records, answered
The extension
Would you rather do it yourself?
High-volume teams usually run this in-house. The extension seals files and captures verification screens locally, on your own machines, with no candidate documents leaving your network, since only a hash is sent for the qualified timestamp.
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 worksAdd an eIDAS SnapPack
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.
Free to install. The package on this page exists for people who would rather hand the job over and receive a finished file.