The Birthmark Media Registry is governed by a coalition of independent journalism, fact-checking, and press freedom organizations—not by a single company or government.
The Birthmark Media Registry provides a decentralized, tamper-evident ledger for recording image authentication data. The Registry stores cryptographic hashes of authenticated photographs along with associated metadata (timestamps, submitter identifiers), enabling anyone to verify whether a photograph has been authenticated by a legitimate camera and when that authentication occurred.
Coalition Membership is open to organizations that demonstrate commitment to information integrity and meet the following criteria:
Important: Organizations whose primary mission is media production (news outlets, content creators, photography agencies) are ineligible for Coalition Membership due to inherent conflict of interest. Organizations that consume, analyze, or validate media (fact-checkers, press freedom advocates, academic institutions, archival organizations) are eligible.
Each Coalition Member purchases ownership of one or more validator node slots in the Media Validation Network. Node ownership includes:
Important: Node ownership and operation confers no editorial authority over authenticated content. The Registry verifies technical provenance, not content accuracy or editorial merit. Coalition Members shall not represent their node operation as endorsement of specific authenticated images.
To prevent concentration of control and maintain decentralization:
The initial node ownership fee is set by The Birthmark Standard Foundation and funds Registry development, deployment, and initial operational support. This fee is a one-time purchase, not a recurring charge.
Ongoing operational costs (server hosting, bandwidth, maintenance) are the responsibility of each Coalition Member for their own nodes, estimated at ~$15-30/month for VPS hosting.
During the initial development phase, The Birthmark Standard Foundation builds and validates the Registry infrastructure. Organizations interested in future Coalition Membership may participate as Founding Advisors, providing input on technical specifications, governance structure, and operational requirements.
During Phase 1, the Foundation Board of Directors retains full authority over technical development, governance design, and charter amendments.
Phase 2 begins when:
Upon Phase 2 commencement, node ownership becomes available for purchase by eligible organizations.
The Foundation retains voting authority in Coalition governance until one year after the first node sale to a Coalition Member.
Once the Foundation's voting authority ends, governance transitions to the full Coalition model.
Under full Coalition governance:
Each Coalition Member operating a validator node agrees to:
Coalition Members are expected to:
Coalition Members are responsible for all operational costs associated with their nodes, including but not limited to server hosting, bandwidth, electricity, and technical staff time. The Registry does not charge ongoing fees to members.
Optional technical support and managed services are available from the Foundation under separate service agreements.
If a Coalition Member's node experiences temporary downtime (hardware failure, network issues), the Media Validation Network continues operation with remaining nodes. The member is expected to restore service as soon as reasonably possible.
If a node remains offline for more than 30 consecutive days without communication, or if a Coalition Member indicates they can no longer operate their node:
A Coalition Member may be removed from the Media Validation Network for the following reasons:
Critical Protection: If a Coalition Member is compelled by legal authority to take actions that violate this charter, that member shall be removed from the Media Validation Network.
This provision protects both the Registry's integrity and the member organization, as it ensures governments cannot subvert the network through captured nodes—they can only remove individual nodes from a network designed to continue operating with remaining members.
The Birthmark Standard Foundation serves as the administrative coordinator for the Registry, not its owner or controller. Foundation responsibilities include:
The Foundation does not provide indefinite technical support as part of node ownership. Coalition Members requiring ongoing technical assistance have two options:
The Foundation does not control the Registry's data, cannot unilaterally modify the Birthmark Blockchain, and cannot override Coalition governance decisions except in documented emergency procedures.
To ensure Media Validation Network resilience and maintain minimum operational requirements, The Birthmark Standard Foundation reserves the right to operate up to 10 validator nodes. These Foundation-operated nodes are subject to the following conditions:
The Foundation sustains operations through:
The Foundation commits to maintaining minimum 12-month operating reserves. If the Foundation determines it can no longer sustain operations, it shall execute an orderly transition: transferring all administrative functions to the Coalition, ensuring all documentation and code repositories remain accessible, and providing 6-month advance notice to Coalition Members.
Registry Independence: The Registry and Media Validation Network are designed to operate independently of the Foundation's continued existence.
The Registry is designed to operate independently of any single organization, including the Foundation. In the event the Foundation ceases operations:
The Registry stores only cryptographic hashes and associated metadata (timestamps, certificate references). Individual image content is never stored on the Birthmark Blockchain.
Certificate references require manufacturer cooperation to trace to specific devices, and even then require possession of the original image to identify relevant records. This architecture prevents fishing expeditions and protects source confidentiality by design.
The Registry stores cryptographic hashes, not images. Authenticated images can be effectively de-authenticated by any unvalidated modification (cropping, format conversion), which generates a new hash with no Registry record.
Validated edits create new hashes that are recorded on the blockchain, maintaining provenance. The Registry does not support hash deletion requests, as processing such requests would require identifying which hashes correspond to specific individuals—creating greater privacy risk than the immutable hash record itself.