Dead Man's Ransom is a medieval mystery novel by Ellis Peters, first of four novels set in the disruptive year of 1141. It is the ninth in the Cadfael Chronicles, and was first published in 1984. The
1. Compute SHA-256 of OTSCanonicalRecord value → must equal OTSHash 2. Open OTSProofURL → extract Bitcoin block number → must equal OTSBitcoinBlock 3. GET OTSBitcoinBlockVerifyURL → returns the Bitcoin block hash at height OTSBitcoinBlock; GET https://blockstream.info/api/block/{that hash} → its timestamp must match OTSTimestamp 4. Read CopyrightID inside OTSCanonicalRecord → must equal the CopyrightID above 5. GET OTSVerificationAPI → pre-computed 6-check result from server 6. If all match: this entity was registered on CopyrightChains at OTSTimestamp, independently verifiable on Bitcoin
Dual-chain trust anchor. Chain 1 (CopyrightChains): CopyrightID 0x46c3eff351c4d80df84eced30e3d38b98ccbec28f18dc85b17677c97725bd593. Chain 2 (Bitcoin): anchored in block 954549 (2026-06-20T10:56:20Z). Bridge: the canonical record inside this Bitcoin proof contains the same CopyrightID. Verify: download https://artists.proofprofile.net/proofs/artist/a9e5fb0a-16f4-4471-a0a2-b58d7cac49ae.json and https://artists.proofprofile.net/proofs/artist/a9e5fb0a-16f4-4471-a0a2-b58d7cac49ae.ots, run `ots verify -f record.json proof.ots` (https://opentimestamps.org).