About public and private anchors

An anchor can be public (which is the default) or private.

The proof receipt of a public anchor is discoverable by anyone knowing the hash of the data (including people with no Woleet account, see the /anchorids endpoint). This allows anyone to retrieve the proof receipt using only the data hash as input, and then to verify it using the Woleet API or any other mean:

  • use the /anchorids endpoint to retrieve the anchor identifier by the hash of the data
  • use the /receipt/{anchorid} endpoint to retrieve the proof receipt of the anchor
  • use the /receipt/verify endpoint (or any other Chainpoint compatible tool) to verify the proof receipt and get the data or signature timestamp.

The proof receipt of a private anchor is not discoverable. It can only be retrieved by its owner. Thus, the owner needs to provide the proof receipt and the data to anyone wanting to verify the proof.