factshas

Factshas are a concept in information verification referring to cryptographic digests created from factual statements. A factsha serves as a compact, tamper-evident token that encodes a claim together with contextual metadata, allowing the claim to be independently verified against its provenance.

Origin and name: The term factsha is a portmanteau of 'fact' and 'hash'. It has appeared in academic and industry discussions about verifiable claims since the mid-2010s and has been used in prototype fact-checking platforms and knowledge graphs to anchor claims to verifiable digests.

Formal description: To generate a factsha, a statement S is first converted into a canonical form N(S). A timestamp t, a source identifier s, and a version v are included. The factsha F is produced by applying a cryptographic hash function H to the concatenation of these elements: F = H(N(S) || t || s || v). The output is a fixed-size token that can be stored or published alongside the claim.

Applications: Factshas support verifiability in fact-checking workflows, enable provenance tracking, and can be embedded in knowledge graphs, content platforms, or distributed ledgers to link claims to verifiable digests.

Limitations and considerations: The usefulness of factshas hinges on robust normalization and agreed metadata. Hashing reveals only integrity and provenance; it does not validate truth, and disputes may arise over interpretation, context, or data sources.

Variants and related concepts: Related ideas include digital signatures and verifiable-claim systems; some projects combine factshas with attestations from trusted authorities or with immutable ledgers. See also cryptographic hash functions and fact-checking ecosystems.