Maat
A verification layer for human-origin content. A cryptographic signature that travels with a piece of work — durable, portable, readable by anyone.
Grand winner · Huawei Code4Mzansi 2026Anything can claim to be made by anyone.
Generative models now produce photos, video, documents, and code that look like they came from a person. The proof of origin used to be implicit. It isn't anymore.
Maat is a small, durable proof that travels with the work — so anyone, anywhere, can check it.
Sign
At the moment of creation, the work is signed locally with a key the creator owns. No upload. No third party. The key never leaves the device.
Travel
The signature is embedded into the file. It's designed to survive copies, re-encodes, crops, and format changes. Where the work goes, the proof goes.
Verify
Anyone can verify the signature offline. Open standard, MIT licensed, no Simakk infrastructure required. The check is local and free.
Public by default.
When Maat ships, the signature scheme, threat model, and reference implementation will all be public and MIT licensed. A trust layer that can't be audited isn't worth trusting.
We're still in private build. Notes and research live in the lab.
Get started
Maat is live. Sign your work, verify anyone's.
Creator tools, publishing pipelines, verification flows — if you're building on Maat, tell us what you're making and we'll help you get it right.