Exploring digital timestamping using smart contract on the Solana blockchain

Abstract

Timestamps establish a means to dictate the existence of a message at a particular moment in the past. Traditional digital timestamping service utilizes Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and thus requires the presence of a Time Stamping Authority, whose job is to ensure the message’s validity. However, with the rise of distributed computing and blockchain technology, it has become possible to obtain timestamps in a decentralized manner, eliminating the need for central authorities. Previous research involves sending transactions or utilizing a smart contract mechanism to store hashes on blockchain and validating the outcome using public ledgers. By prototyping a simple digital timestamping protocol on the Solana blockchain, this article explores the natural advantages of the Solana blockchain for timestamping, implements a smart contract of digital timestamping on the Solana blockchain, and measures its latency, costs, and performance. The initial estimation expects the accuracy of the timestamps produced by the prototype to reach the average sub-second slot time. However, due to network propagation delay, it is not always possible to hit this level. The cost incurred during the process is also analyzed and discussed. Finally, this article highlights the potential ability of the blockchain to provide modern decentralized services.