The chain / A plain-language guide

What the RabbitSoftware chain is, and what it is not

RabbitSoftware keeps a public, hash-linked record of research events so that anyone can check that nothing was quietly changed afterwards. It is a tamper-evident log. It is not a cryptocurrency, and it does not claim that anything written in it is true.

What it can show

That a record existed, in this order, and has not been altered since. That several independent copies agree. That a fingerprint of the record was witnessed by Bitcoin at a given time.

What it cannot show

That a paper is correct, that an AI summary is right, who a person is, or that an experiment works. A record on the chain is a record, not a verdict.

What it is not

There is no coin, token or price, and nothing to buy, sell or trade.

Three layers, each easy to check

Layer 1

The public ledger

Every change to the open research tables becomes one event. Each event carries the hash of the one before it, so changing an old event breaks every later link. The ledger is readable at app.rabbitsoftware.io/ledger. Copies are kept in the database, in a second storage mirror, in a public Google Cloud bucket, and in a local file, and the status page checks that they agree.

Layer 2

The Maxwell chain

A small proof-of-work chain written by the project itself. Its blocks hold fingerprints (Merkle roots) of the public research records and of the state of the whole platform: which pages and services answered, how big the open datasets are, and whether the chain copies agreed. A block is added only when something actually changed. It is mirrored into the public ledger.

Layer 3

Bitcoin timestamps

Every few hours, if the ledger or Maxwell chain changed, a SHA-256 fingerprint of their latest heads is sent to the public OpenTimestamps calendars, which commit it into Bitcoin. Once Bitcoin confirms it, the proof shows the record existed by that block, witnessed by a network the project does not control. Proofs are public in the anchor index.

Layer 4 · planned

Ethereum and XRP Ledger notes

Not switched on. The plan is to write the same fingerprint into one Ethereum transaction and one XRP Ledger memo, so two more independent public networks witness it. The software exists but nothing has been posted to either network yet, so today the only outside witness is Bitcoin: checking the anchor index…. Status file: chains.json.

…events in the public ledger

…public services answering

…public research records

Live numbers load from the status page feed when your browser can reach it. Chain copies: checked on the status page.

What goes on the chain, and what never does

On the chain

Hashes and counts. Merkle roots. Public record identifiers, titles and source links. Whether a public service answered. Release fingerprints of the project code.

Never on the chain

Names, emails, DNA or RNA sequences, EEG or other health values, keys, passwords, or anything that identifies a person. The chain is public and permanent, so personal data stays in the encrypted local vault. The checks reject events that contain personal data.

Check it yourself

Read the newest ledger head: app.rabbitsoftware.io/api/chain/head (its length and head hash).
Compare it with the independent copy in Google Cloud: chain_head.json. The two should match.
Read the Maxwell chain and check that each block names the hash of the one before it: maxwell_chain.json.
Open the anchor index. Download one entry’s anchor.json and anchor.json.ots, then run the standard ots verify anchor.json.ots tool (with a Bitcoin node or a block explorer connection). It reports the Bitcoin block that contains the fingerprint. The files are named anchors/<id>/anchor.json and anchors/<id>/anchor.json.ots in the same bucket.
Or just open the status page, which checks the copies every five minutes.

Honest limits

It is not a decentralized public blockchain. There is no consensus among strangers. The Maxwell chain has one operator.
Tampering is detectable, not impossible. Someone with database administrator rights could try to rewrite history. They could not do it without the copies and the Bitcoin timestamps contradicting them.
A timestamp is not truth. Bitcoin shows when a fingerprint existed. It does not show that the underlying record is accurate.
Public means permanent. Anything on the chain cannot be erased, which is why nothing personal goes there.
Research prototype. RabbitSoftware is research tooling, not clinical software. AI summaries are labeled unverified.

Questions people ask

Is there a RabbitSoftware coin or token?

No. There is no token, no sale and no price. Nothing on this site takes payments or donations at the moment. The small accounts used for anchoring are listed in the status file only to pay network fees.

Why Bitcoin?

It is a widely watched public network that none of us control, which makes it a good independent witness for a timestamp. Using it as a witness is not an endorsement of any asset.

Can I put my own data on the chain?

No. Personal data belongs in your own encrypted local vault. The public chain only holds fingerprints and public records.

Who runs it?

It is created and maintained by Chase Allen Ringquist. See the author page and the story.

Is the code open?

The project code is licensed under UPL-1.0 (see license and authorship), but the source repository is not public at the moment. You do not need it to check the chain: every step above uses public files and standard tools.

Where do the identifiers come from?

The chain and block identifiers guide explains what each id, hash and index means and which ones must not be mixed up.

Next: why RabbitSoftware exists · press kit.