Three approaches. One proves authorship.
Process Evidence
vs. Watermarking vs. AI Detection
Watermarks prove someone signed the text. AI detectors guess what generated it. Only process evidence captures how it was written.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Dimension | WritersLogicProcess Evidence | Watermarkinge.g., Encypher | AI Detectione.g., GPTZero |
|---|---|---|---|
| Provenance | |||
| What it provesThe fundamental question each approach answers | A human wrote it (process evidence) | Someone signed it (ownership claim) | Statistical guess (probability score) |
| When evidence is createdAt what point in the writing lifecycle proof is generated | During writing | After writing | After publication |
| Can AI-generated text pass?Whether someone can sign AI output and claim authorship | No | Yes | Partial |
| Robustness | |||
| Survives paraphrasingWhether proof remains intact when text is reworded | Yes | No | N/A |
| Adversary-resistantHow difficult it is for a motivated adversary to defeat | Locked to your device hardware | Invisible characters (easily stripped) | Model-dependent (20%+ error rate) |
| Tamper-evidentWhether altering evidence invalidates the proof chain | Yes | Partial | No |
| Legal & Standards | |||
| Legal evidentiary weightUsefulness as evidence in legal or disciplinary proceedings | Concrete evidence of the writing process | Ownership claim only | Probabilistic opinion |
| Standards trackBacked by recognized standards bodies | Backed by international standards (IETF, C2PA) | C2PA Section A.7 | None |
| Practical | |||
| Privacy preservingWhether actual content or keystrokes are recorded | Yes | Yes | No |
| Works offlineCan generate proof without internet connection | Yes | No | No |
| Open sourceLicense and availability of source code | AGPL 3.0 open core + commercial licensing | AGPL 3.0 (viral copyleft) | Proprietary |
| Records how you writeCaptures your editing rhythm, revision patterns, and pause timing | Yes | No | No |
The fundamental difference
Watermarking proves someone claimed the text. AI detection guesses what generated it. Neither captures the act of writing itself.
WritersProof records how you write: your rhythm, your pauses, how you revise and edit. This evidence is locked to your device hardware and sealed so that changing any part invalidates the whole record. Anyone can verify it for free.
Someone can strip a watermark with a few lines of code. To fake process evidence, they would need to sit down and type every word of the document with realistic human editing patterns while defeating hardware-level security. That is a fundamentally harder problem.
Ready to prove authorship, not just claim it?
See how WritersProof captures process evidence for writers, publishers, and institutions.