A History of Certified Mail and the Shortfalls of an Antiquated System
Since its creation in 1955, Certified Mail has become both a financially important product for the U.S. Postal Service and one that fulfills a critical legal and business need for American citizens. It has grown to be the largest of the Ancillary Services offered by the Postal Service.
Originally proposed as an offshoot of the Registered Mail system, Certified Mail was an innovation that provided a way for citizens to send critical business and legal documents with similar visibility and accountability, but at a lower price. Over time, citizens’ trust in Certified Mail has made it an essential communication channel between citizens and government, as it is used to transmit documents such as tax returns and a variety of important public notices. By including tracking and verification that a letter was sent and delivered, Certified Mail provides customers peace of mind about their most important mail items and offers added assurance and security for sensitive documents.
Due to these advantages, Certified Mail has served at least two critical legal functions. First, Certified Mail validates delivery. Parties in legal proceedings frequently must prove that they mailed relevant documents to other parties and that those documents were received. The mailing receipts and delivery notifications that Certified Mail provides allow it to be used as prima facie evidence in legal proceedings. Before its introduction, there was no nationwide agreement about what mail products met this legal standard. It has become a key method of legal correspondence between governments, citizens, and businesses. The use of Certified Mail to send such important documents demonstrates the trust that postal customers place in it, leading some customers to use Certified Mail even when they are not legally required to do so.
Second, Certified Mail validates content. Parties in legal proceedings, especially in those where an individual is in conflict with a much more powerful entity, need to prove the validity of their evidence. For decades, Certified Mail has been a trusted method used by inventors, whistleblowers, advocates, artists, and others to prove that a document existed without alteration since the date claimed. For example, inventors will send designs to themselves via Certified Mail in case their creation or ownership is challenged. Whistleblowers will send vital documents to themselves via Certified Mail in case all other copies are destroyed. Or advocates will send contentious notes to themselves via Certified Mail in case their accuracy is questioned. If an envelope sent via Certified Mail remains sealed, the court accepts that the documents within have existed and remain unaltered since the day they were sent via Certified Mail. The use of Certified Mail to validate the authenticity of such important documents demonstrates the need for community validation of authenticity, leading many individuals in legally sensitive professions to rely upon Certified Mail as a best practice for data protection.
Unfortunately, there are many flaws in the current system:
1. Long Processing Times — A common complaint is the long processing time that occurs when an individual tries to send Certified Mail. There are several unique aspects of processing Certified Mail that increases wait times. First, individuals must wait in line to send Certified Mail if they want the postmarked receipt necessary for legal reasons. Second, it takes clerks longer to process Certified Mail transactions than many others.Third, the actual delivery of the Certified Mail can take 3 to 10 business days. And if the recipient is not available to sign at time of delivery, that timeline can increase to 15 days at which point the mail is returned to the sender of no signature is received.
2. Complicated Forms — For the average postal customer, properly filling out and attaching Certified Mail forms can be daunting. The process can be further complicated by adding a Return Receipt, which contains more fields to fill out. When an individual incorrectly fills out a form — a frequent occurrence — this results in the clerk personally having to assist the customer, extending processing times and frustration.
3. Delivery Reliability — Missing scans, signatures, and mail pieces present an acute problem in the case of Certified Mail. When a piece goes missing, no signature is obtained, or there is no final delivery scan, the sender is entitled to a refund from the post office Aside from the financial risk posed by some of these delivery issues, delivery reliability is particularly important because much of Certified Mail’s value comes from the ability to prove that the delivery of the mail occurred. 65 percent of Certified Mail users list confirmation of delivery as the main reason they use Certified Mail.
4. Domestic Limitations — Certified Mail is a domestic mail product meaning the use of Certified Mail is limited to addresses within the United States. For international documentation validation, Certified Mail is not acceptable service.
Just as Certified Mail was developed as a better way to meet the emerging needs of customers in the 1950s, the antiquated and inefficient use of the U.S. Postal Service has paved the way for a new alternative in today’s digital age.
Certified Mail is widely used by Americans with approximately 58 percent of people having used it for either personal or professional mailings. However, usage has been in decline since the start of this decade as individuals and businesses turned to digital alternatives. Services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, other Cloud Storage providers, and dedicated data rooms strive to offer validation by providing auditable digital documentation protection. However, few digital documents in the legal community retain a fully auditable chain of custody within any of these systems. Without an external, community validation method for digital documents, when a digital document’s validity is questioned during an eDiscovery process, the only way to currently attempt to resolve any validity challenge is through a forensic analysis which can easily cost in the range of $5,000 up to $20,000.
As the legal system begins to grapple with a world that has progressed from simple fraud to deep fakes, the truth provided by Certified Mail in the physical world needs a digital equivalent.
This is where Trokt comes in. Trokt’s Blockchain Certified Email provides the digital authenticity equivalent to Certified Mail for any digital file type or content. Blockchain Certified Email provides that much needed auditable protection for digital files that cannot easily be physically saved and authenticated using Certified Mail. While the file remains in digital form while saved on any device,Trokt Blockchain develops the bit-by-bit hash or “digital thumbprint” of that file which can be instantly validated no matter where the file is later shared, renamed, or stored. No matter what, Trokt can instantly prove that the file in question has not been altered in any way since it was added to the Trokt Blockchain. Trokt Blockchain Certified Email saves our next generation the time and money required to validate the truth that previously could only be protected by Certified Mail.
To learn more about Trokt’s Blockchain Certified Email and the Trokt neopublic blockchain network it is built upon, please visit/read our website, whitepaper, or intro deck. Our Blockchain Certified Email is currently in private beta. To request access or if you have any additional questions, please email blockchain@trokt.org.
