01CAPTURED LIVE6:42:14 PM
Kitchen counter, left side, no damage
§1
FIG. 1
An Etch in the wild
SPECIMEN №001
Etch it.Send it.Settle it.
Bundle photos, voice notes, video, and text into one sealed, dated link. Send it for proof, memory, story, updates, briefs, or anything you want to keep as one clean record instead of a messy chat thread.
FIG. 1 — A typical Etch.
Captured by a tenant in Brooklyn,
March 2026.
Resolved her deposit dispute in 9 days.
§2
2 MIN READ
What an Etch is
An Etch is a small, sealed record. A bundle you publish once, then send as a single link.
The recipient opens it in any browser. They see what you wanted them to see, in the order you placed it, dated to the second. If anything in the bundle changes after you publish, the seal breaks. A photo swapped, a line of text edited, an item removed. The viewer sees that, too.
It is the digital equivalent of a sealed envelope, slid under a door, with the time and date stamped on the wax.
The seal is a cryptographic hash. It fingerprints the bundle's contents at the moment you publish. We store the hash. If the bundle ever changes, the new fingerprint won't match the old one, and the viewer page makes that obvious.
Photos taken inside the Etch app carry a server-stamped timestamp at the moment of capture. They show up on the recipient's view with a small CAPTURED LIVE badge. Photos uploaded from your camera roll are clearly marked separate, with no timestamp claim. The viewer can always tell which is which.
CAPTURED LIVE
6:42:14 PM · server-stamped
ATTACHED
JAN 14 2025 · uploaded
What you do with it is up to you. People use Etches for security deposit walkthroughs, freelance project handoffs, marketplace condition records, contractor before-and-afters, insurance claim documentation, and the dozen other situations in life that come down to: “I need to prove this happened, and I need to be believed.”
Etch isn't a notary. It isn't a legal substitute for one. It's a tamper-evident record with cryptographic integrity, which is enough for almost every dispute that doesn't end up in a courtroom. It's useful evidence even when one does.
§3
FIG. 2–5
Specimens
Etch is general-purpose. Here are six modes people use it in, followed by four examples in detail.
The six modes
Six modes. One mechanism.
- PROOF
- security deposits, deliveries, marketplace trades, freelance handoffs, contractor records, insurance claims
- MEMORY
- trip recaps, weekend roundups, family updates, event highlights
- STORY
- creative drops, project portfolios, behind-the-scenes
- UPDATE
- weekly notes to a partner, a parent, a client, a team
- BRIEF
- designer references, recruiter shortlists, realtor property tours
- ARCHIVE
- a dated, ordered record of anything worth remembering
Underneath each one: bundle what you captured → publish → send one link.
SPECIMEN Nº 01 · PROOFBROOKLYN, NY · MAR 2026
The deposit dispute
Pat documented her apartment in 18 sealed photos and a written note from the property manager confirming no damage. She sent the link the day she moved out. Nine days later her deposit was returned in full, with no negotiation.
Created by a tenant in Brooklyn · Resolved in 9 days
SPECIMEN Nº 02 · MEMORYCHICAGO, IL · APR 2026
The trip recap
Sam wanted to send their parents a real recap of the Lisbon trip. Not 50 separate texts, not a Google Photos dump. One sealed link, 22 items, ordered the way they wanted them seen. Their mom keeps every Etch they send.
Created by a traveler in Chicago · Sent home in one message
SPECIMEN Nº 03 · STORYAUSTIN, TX · MAY 2026
The lookbook drop
Aisha runs a small label and used to dump a 60-page PDF on press contacts every season. Now she sends a single Etch with the photos, her commentary, and the references, in the order she wants them seen. The link goes in the email, and that's the entire press kit.
Created by a designer in Austin · Featured by 6 outlets
SPECIMEN Nº 04 · UPDATEDENVER, CO · APR 2026
The weekly note
Riley is in their first year of grad school, two thousand miles from home. Their parents asked for “more than two emojis a week.” Now every Sunday they send one Etch. A few photos, a paragraph of context, the small wins. Fourteen weeks running.
Created by a grad student in Denver · 14 weeks running
§4
4 ENTRIES
The kit
Everything in Etch today. Free. No tier, no trial, no asterisk.
Items you can put in an Etch
Two now · two on the way
PhotoLIVE
Text noteLIVE
Voice noteSOON
VideoSOON
01
Sealed bundles
The seal is the point.
Every Etch you publish carries a cryptographic fingerprint. If anything in it changes after you publish, the fingerprint no longer matches and the viewer sees a clear tampered notice. It is not a guarantee. It is a receipt.
02
Captured-live stamps
Verified at the source.
Photos taken inside the app are server-stamped at the exact moment of capture and show up to recipients with a CAPTURED LIVE badge. Photos uploaded from your camera roll are clearly marked separate, with no timestamp claim. The viewer can always tell which is which.
03
One link, no install
Frictionless on the other side.
Recipients open your Etch in any browser. No app, no account, nothing to download. Etch's whole job on their end is to be a link that works the first time you tap it, on any device.
04
Yours, always
Delete anytime. Truly.
Pull an Etch down whenever you want. The link returns 404 immediately. All media is purged from storage within 24 hours. No tombstones, no shadow copies, no “we keep it for legal reasons.”
§5
Q3–Q4 2026
On the way
Etch is free while we build the next layer. These tools are next.
DRAFT
Voice notes
PLANNED Q3Inline audio with a clean waveform, for when a photo doesn't say enough.
DRAFT
Video walkthroughs
PLANNED Q3Short HD clips for room walkthroughs, condition records, before-and-after.
DRAFT
View receipts
PLANNED Q4See when your link was opened, from where (anonymized to city), and for how long.
DRAFT
Privacy controls
PLANNED Q4Password-protect a link, set an expiry, require a viewer email before opening.
Have something specific you want? Email support@stalwartcrest.com
§6
M.01 – M.06
The manual
Common questions, plainly answered.
M.01READ FIRST
Is Etch really free?
Yes. Everything Etch can do today is free, with no usage caps, during this MVP period. Sealed bundles, public share links, unlimited Etches. We're focused on getting the core right before charging for anything. The next set of tools (more media types, view receipts, privacy controls) is on the way. See “On the way” above.
M.02TECHNICAL
What does “sealed” actually mean?
When you publish an Etch, we generate a cryptographic hash of the bundle's contents. If anything inside changes afterward, the hash no longer matches and the viewer sees a clear “tampered” warning. A photo swapped, a line of text edited, an item removed: any of those will break the seal. Think of it as a tamper-evident sticker for digital media.
M.03TECHNICAL
Are the timestamps trustworthy?
Photos taken inside the app are stamped by our servers at the exact moment of capture and show a “Captured Live” badge. Photos uploaded from your camera roll are clearly marked “Attached” with no timestamp claim. The viewer can always see which is which.
M.04PRIVACY
Where does my data live?
Your media is encrypted at rest. You pick the region at signup, EU or US. Your content is never sold, never used to train AI, and never shared with anyone you don't share the link with. The full list of data processors lives in the privacy policy if you want the specifics.
M.05PRIVACY
Can I delete an Etch?
Anytime. Deletion is immediate. The link returns 404 and all associated media is purged from our storage within 24 hours. No tombstones, no shadow copies, no “we keep it for legal reasons.”
M.06LEGAL
Is this admissible in court?
Etch creates a contemporaneous record with cryptographic integrity, which is genuinely useful for disputes with landlords, insurance companies, freelance clients, and marketplace counterparties. We don't claim courtroom-grade chain of custody. That requires a notary, which is a different category of product. For everything short of formal legal proceedings, Etch holds up.
Start etching.
One link. Sealed. Sent.
Free when it ships.
COLOPHON
Set in Instrument Serif, Clash Display, Plus Jakarta Sans, and JetBrains Mono.
This page is itself a kind of Etch.