A method to store information via email and ensure the verification of the data and the identification of the version

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

The permanent storage of information and data is absolutely essential for a large proportion of Internet users. The name "V verification system" refers to a procedure for sending information via email and providing it with defined version identification attributes in order to guarantee the subsequent traceability of the version history. As this procedure uses the existing email infrastructure, elements such as DKIM, SPF or the encryption of email content can be used to guarantee the integrity of the data.¶

The V verification system only uses the email infrastructure. This means that the use of the V verification system is not associated with far-reaching changes to the existing infrastructure, and compatibility with legacy infrastructures is guaranteed. Furthermore, these minimal requirements mean that the V verification system is highly flexible and can also be used in environments with limited infrastructure.¶

2. The Specification

The user or administrator who wishes to store data in the sense of the V verification system, MUST use their personal individual email account (example: valentin@system.valentin).¶

The user or administrator MUST send the data to a personal, individual email address that is also uniquely assigned to them (example: valentin@admins.valentin). This address MAY be the same as the sender's address, but MAY also be an address that is different from the sender's address. The data SHOULD be in the message body of the email. The message body itself MAY be formatted as Plain text (flat US-ASCII text)([RFC822]) or MIME ([RFC2045]).¶

The subject of the email SHOULD include the project name or the name of the data to be stored, the current date in the format YYYYMMDD and the current time in the format HHMM as well as a random value. The subject of an email could therefore look like this: "PROJECTXYYZ202406181520 VB"¶

In order to improve the durability of the data or to enable collaboration with other people, these mails MAY also be addressed to a mailing list or to various other people in addition to the personal email address.¶

The minimum requirements of the V verification system are described in this document. All further details on how the user wishes to use the V verification system are the sole responsibility of the user.¶

3. Security Considerations

According to the author, no security considerations apply to this document.¶

4. IANA Considerations

This document has no IANA actions.¶

Author's Address