Abstract: The present invention validates provenance dates of electronic documents. A document version date may be determined by creating a unique checksum for the document and having the document's owner digitally sign it with a private key. The checksum and digital signature are securely stored by an authorization entity along with a timestamp fixing the date/time. A unique resource identifier is returned to the user. Subsequently, if the document's date needs to be proved to a third party, a verification program is applied to the original document to create a new checksum. The unique resource identifier is used to retrieve the signed checksum from the authorization entity. Upon verification of matching checksums, the timestamp provided by the authorization entity proves the date/time the document existed. In addition, the public key provided by the document owner proves that the checksum was signed by the owner's private key, proving their ownership.