Delayed Anchoring

Most attestation systems make timestamping and chain settlement the same event. An attestation is created when it is written to the chain. Before the chain transaction, there is no attestation. After the transaction, the attestation is permanent.

H33-74 decouples those steps.

Why decoupling matters

• Cost. You pay chain fees only when notarization is needed. A system producing 100,000 receipts per day does not have to pay for 100,000 chain transactions per day.
• Throughput. Receipt issuance is not bounded by chain confirmation times. The system continues operating at full speed; chain anchoring runs as a batched background process.
• Optionality. You can decide later whether to anchor at all, which chains, and when. Different anchoring strategies for different receipt categories.
• Sovereignty. A system can run in environments where public chains are not appropriate (regulated, classified, air-gapped) and still produce cryptographic evidence.

Three anchoring postures

Immediate per-receipt anchoring

Each receipt produces a chain transaction at the moment of creation. Maximum notarization, highest cost. Appropriate for low-frequency high-value events: large transfers, governance final decisions, custody changes.

Batched periodic anchoring

The system collects receipts produced over a time window (one hour, one day, one week) and anchors a single cryptographic commitment over the batch in one chain transaction. Verifying any individual receipt requires the receipt plus a short proof tying it to the batch. The mechanism is identical to how OpenTimestamps has anchored hundreds of millions of timestamps to Bitcoin since 2016, extended with post-quantum signatures.

On-demand retroactive anchoring

Receipts are produced and held without chain anchoring. When external verification is needed (regulator inquiry, dispute, audit), the system anchors the relevant receipts at that moment. The receipts existed all along; the chain anchor is added when the cost is justified.

What anchoring actually adds

The receipt is already signed by three independent post-quantum families. The chain anchor adds:

• An independent third-party notarization that the receipt existed by no later than a specific block height.
• Replication and durability through whatever chain you choose.
• A public reference that allows any third party to confirm timing without depending on H33 infrastructure.

What the chain anchor does not add: the integrity of the receipt itself. That is already cryptographically established by the post-quantum signatures the moment the receipt is produced.

Anchor migration as a routine operation

Because anchoring is separate, the anchor set can evolve. A receipt anchored only on Polygon today can later be anchored on Bitcoin too, and the original Polygon anchor remains valid. The receipt itself does not change; the set of independent notarizations grows.

Compared to traditional timestamping

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