How to read a District Seal certificate

Every certificate contains the same set of fields. This page explains what each one is, what it proves, and how to verify it independently.

Certificate reference

Every certificate is identified by a reference of the form DS-TX-00000128. This is the unique transaction ID. It appears in the certificate PDF, in the email you receive, and on the public verification page. Anyone can use it to look up the certificate.

Signer name and email

The name and email you entered when you created the signature request. The name is used on the certificate as the attestation of who signed. The email is where the signing link was sent.

Issuer organization

The organization on whose behalf the document was issued — that is, your company or firm. Comes from your dashboard account settings.

Document hash (SHA-256)

A 64-character hexadecimal string — the SHA-256 hash of the exact PDF that was signed. This is the fingerprint of your document. If any byte of the PDF changes after signing, the hash changes, and the certificate will not verify against the altered file.

Verification mode

The method used to verify the signer's identity in this transaction:

Verification results

The certificate records the result of each check as a distinct pass/fail flag:

Identity distance

A numeric value showing how far the live face embedding was from the reference photo embedding. Lower is closer. The threshold is recorded alongside the value. Typical results:

Forensic timeline

The full event log of the ceremony, with timestamps to the millisecond. Includes:

• When the signing link was opened
• When the document was scrolled to 100%
• When consent was accepted
• When WebAuthn was verified
• When the challenge words were issued and when they were spoken
• Each head-turn gesture and its detection
• The final analysis results
• Any focus-loss events (signer tabbed away from the window)

The timeline is the record of what actually happened during the ceremony. It cannot be edited after issuance.

Ledger seal

A SHA-256 hash of the certificate manifest. The manifest is a JSON object containing the document hash, the event log, and all verification results. This hash binds the certificate to the record — if the record is altered, the seal breaks.

Public verification URL

Every certificate includes a URL of the form:

https://verify.districtseal.com/DS-TX-00000128/3f03d835f65701fa

This URL is also encoded in a QR code printed on the certificate. Anyone — a court, an auditor, an opposing party — can open the URL and confirm the certificate is genuine. No District Seal account is required. No phone call, no letter, no waiting.

Verifying a certificate independently

1. Compute the SHA-256 hash of the signed PDF file yourself (shasum -a 256 document.pdf on macOS or Linux).
2. Compare the first 16 characters to the value shown on the public verification page.
3. If they match, the document has not been altered since signing.
4. If they do not match, the document has been modified since signing. The certificate still proves what was signed, but the file in your hands is not the file that was signed.

What the certificate does not contain

• The raw biometric video from the ceremony (destroyed within 24 hours)
• The raw voice audio (destroyed within 24 hours)
• The signer's IP address (retained in the internal audit log, not on the certificate)
• Any data belonging to other District Seal users

Retention

By default, certificates and the associated forensic records are retained for seven years from issuance. This matches common record-retention practices for signed instruments in the United States.