What Keel does, and what it does not claim.
Keel's software holds statutory registers as a numbered chain of entries. This page explains the chain in plain terms, then lists exactly what follows from it and what does not.
The fingerprint
Each entry's fingerprint is a SHA-256 hash value: a 64-character string computed from the entry's text and the previous entry's fingerprint. The same text always gives the same value. Change one character and the value changes completely. You can watch this happen in the sample company.
The chain
Because every fingerprint includes the one before it, the entries form a chain. Altering, deleting or reordering an old entry changes its fingerprint and every fingerprint after it, so the change shows as soon as anyone recomputes the chain.
Corrections
Nothing is edited in place. A correction is a new entry that points at the one it corrects and states the reason. The original stays in the book and prints struck through, the way a bound register is corrected.
The opening position
When a firm starts on Keel, it chooses the day each book opens. Keel records the registers as they stand that day, as the opening position, and seals every entry from then on. Keel does not judge, date or report anything before the opening day, and every extract states the day the book was opened on Keel and that nothing before it is vouched for.
Witnesses outside Keel
A chain proves most when its fingerprints are also held by someone else. Keel's can be held in several places: by every seat holder who downloads a pack; if the firm chooses, in the board minutes, which can record the latest fingerprint at each meeting; and, from the month after the first live book is sealed, in a monthly public anchor that rolls up every live book's latest fingerprint (see Anchors).
Checking without Keel
The export contains each entry's text and fingerprint. Anyone can recompute the chain with standard tools, such as sha256sum on Linux, shasum -a 256 on a Mac, or certutil -hashfile on Windows, and compare the results. Nothing about the check depends on Keel still existing.
Where the data is
Firm data is stored in Singapore. A move to India is planned for December 2026. Backups are taken daily. Keel staff open register content only to import it and, after that, only when a firm asks for support.
Claims, side by side
| Keel claims | Keel does not claim |
|---|---|
| Once someone outside Keel holds a fingerprint, any later edit, deletion or reordering of the entries up to that point can be detected. | That an entry was true, or that it was authorised. The firm and the company answer for what is recorded. |
| Inspection packs list each entry's SHA-256 hash value and the algorithm, to enclose with a certificate under s.63(4) of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023. The hash value of the file a party produces is computed on that file. | That a court, the ROC or anyone else will accept a record. Part B is for an expert, and admission is for the court. |
| Every seat view and download is logged where the firm can read it. | That Keel's own timestamp proves when an entry was made. It is Keel's record of when it was sealed, unless the fingerprint is also held outside Keel, for example in signed minutes. |
| The book exports in full, with its fingerprints, and can be checked without Keel using standard tools. | That a change is impossible, or that any system is completely secure. Keel is tamper-evident: changes show; they are not made impossible. |
- Companies Act, 2013, s.120 (records in electronic form)
- Companies (Management and Administration) Rules, 2014, rules 27 and 28
- Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, s.63(4) and the Schedule
- Pune Bar Association v Union of India, 2026 SCC OnLine SC 1297 (Supreme Court, 22 May 2026)