Simple Proof, the bitcoin-based document time-stamping company, recently announced official partnerships with El Salvador’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of the Environment to protect
public records using the Bitcoin blockchain technology. The announcement was made during the Bitcoin Histórico conference at the National Theater in San Salvador, where CEO Carlos Toriello presented alongside OpenTimestamps creator and Bitcoin Core Contributor Peter Todd.
The collaboration marks El Salvador’s continued leadership in applying Bitcoin technology beyond financial applications. Both ministries have begun registering official documents on the Bitcoin blockchain, with verified records now publicly available through dedicated government portals.
“Bitcoin is not just digital money – it is also a clock that no one controls. This allows us to certify with precision the exact moment a document was created, guaranteeing its authenticity and protecting the history of the country forever… We help ensure that the history of the country is preserved intact and can be verified directly on Bitcoin, without intermediaries,” said Carlos Toriello’s press release, CEO of Bitcoin Simplelo Magazine.
The company has had several successful pilot programs in the past, including one in Screven County, Georgia, in the United States, and another in Guatemala, where it had a direct impact on the 2023 elections.
This implementation builds on Simple Proof’s previous work in El Salvador, where the CUBO+ program’s graduation certificates became the first public documents in the country registered via the Bitcoin blockchain.
The Ministry of the Environment’s time-stamped documents, including national reports and public files, are available at blockchain.ambiente.gob.sv. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs offers verification of institutional reports and records at rree.gob.sv/logros-y-memorias.
Peter Todd, the creator of OpenTimestamps, the platform and protocol used in part to timestamp critical data on the Bitcoin blockchain, said in the press release that “With a single transaction, we can protect millions of documents without overloading the network or changing its monetary function,” noting that the system only stores cryptographic hashes instead of actual documents on Bitcoin.
The project positions El Salvador as a global reference for the use of blockchain technology in government
information governance, strengthening transparency and public trust in democratic institutions and processes by eliminating the possibility of document manipulation.