Certivu vs C2PA
C2PA is an open standard for content provenance. Certivu is a service that signs and verifies AI-generated content with post-quantum ML-DSA signatures, adds resilient watermarking and fingerprinting fallbacks, and embeds real ML-DSA-signed C2PA manifests into JPEG/PNG for interoperability. They solve overlapping problems with different trade-offs.
Side by side
| Certivu | C2PA | |
|---|---|---|
| Signature cryptography | ML-DSA (Dilithium), NIST FIPS 204 — post-quantum | RSA / ECDSA / Ed25519 — classical |
| Quantum resistance | Yes, by design | Not in current deployments |
| Resilient fallback when metadata is stripped | Watermark + pHash + acoustic fingerprint | Optional soft bindings, implementation-dependent |
| Verification cost | Free, unlimited, no account | Depends on implementer |
| Content storage | None — hashes and records only | Defined by implementer |
| C2PA manifest embedding | Yes — ML-DSA-signed (post-quantum) into JPEG/PNG | Native, classically signed |
| Nature | Hosted service + SDKs | Open standard / specification |
C2PA is a specification, not a single product — exact behavior depends on the implementer. The C2PA column describes the common case in current deployments.
Content outlives its cryptography
Classical signature algorithms — RSA, ECDSA, Ed25519 — will be broken by sufficiently large quantum computers. Content signed today needs to remain verifiable for a decade or more. Certivu uses ML-DSA (Dilithium), finalized by NIST as FIPS 204, from day one.
We do not use RSA or ECC anywhere in our signing stack.
Provenance survives transformation
Embedded manifests and tokens are the fast path, but they can be stripped by recompression, screenshots, or re-uploads. Certivu layers an invisible watermark plus perceptual-hash and acoustic fingerprint lookups so provenance can often be recovered after metadata is gone.
These are resilience signals, not proof. The cryptographic signature remains the source of truth.
Common questions
Is Certivu a replacement for C2PA?
Not exactly. C2PA is an open standard for content provenance manifests. Certivu is a service that signs and verifies AI-generated content using post-quantum ML-DSA signatures and adds resilient watermarking and fingerprinting fallbacks. Certivu writes real, embeddable C2PA manifests into JPEG and PNG — signed with ML-DSA instead of classical RSA/ECC — and reads third-party C2PA manifests on verification, so the two are complementary rather than mutually exclusive.
Does C2PA use post-quantum cryptography?
Not in standard deployments — C2PA manifests are typically signed with classical algorithms such as RSA, ECDSA, or Ed25519, which are vulnerable to future quantum attacks. Certivu signs exclusively with ML-DSA (Dilithium), the NIST FIPS 204 post-quantum standard, and the C2PA manifests it embeds into JPEG/PNG carry that same ML-DSA signature — making them post-quantum. They are structurally interoperable with Content Credentials, though standard verifiers report the algorithm as unrecognized today.
What happens if the provenance metadata is stripped?
Stripping the embedded manifest or token removes the fast path for both C2PA and Certivu. Certivu adds resilient fallbacks — an invisible watermark plus perceptual-hash and acoustic fingerprint lookups — so provenance can often still be recovered after the metadata is gone. These fallbacks are resilience signals, not proof; the cryptographic signature remains the source of truth.
Can I use both Certivu and C2PA?
Yes. Certivu embeds real ML-DSA-signed C2PA manifests into your JPEG/PNG content and reads third-party manifests on verification, so you can sign with Certivu's post-quantum signatures and still interoperate with C2PA-aware tools and viewers.
Verify provenance for free
No account required to verify. 500 free signatures per month to sign.