Ease of use, verification, and security has replaced the use of traditional signatures with digital signatures. The traditional or handwritten signatures are a representation of an individual’s name for validating identity. Human beings have been used to signing all important documents to provide their authenticity from ancient times.
From government documents, jobs applications to admission forms, and contracts, signatures have been used to validate our identity. Years after the start of this practice of signing documents, the traditional signatures have been replaced with the digital signatures now. People have been replacing the use of handwritten signatures with pins, biometrics, chips, etc. The sender can simply type or draw the signature and send it online.
After countries around the world legalized the use of digital signatures online, many businesses and individuals started adopting this method. Today, the use of digital signatures has become wide and it is expected that traditional signatures will be replaced entirely in the near future.
Below, we will see how digital signatures actually work and why you should choose them over the traditional ones.
What is a Digital Signature and How Does It Work?
A digital signature is nothing but a mathematical method of validating the authenticity of an online official document, software application, or message. It offers much better security and also solves problems linked with fraud, tampering, or impersonation.
Basically, a digital fingerprint can be attached to documents and can be checked for changes all through the document’s life cycle. Any extra edits made to the document are detected quickly and all parties involved get prompted. The working of digital signatures happens in the below-mentioned ways:
- A document is uploaded by the sender so that it can be sent to the receiver on the internet.
- Once it is sent, a cryptographic hash gets generated with the private key which is then appended to the document.
- The online encrypted document is sent to the receiver with the public key of the sender.
- The receivers can then decrypt the hash with the public key and create a cryptographic hash for a similar document.
- These hash values must be similar to each other for ensuring honesty.
Why Choose Digital Signatures?
- User-Friendliness: Globalization has led the people we interact with to move to many places around the world. If you are working with someone who is in another location and wants to get their signature, the digital signature can do the same for you within minutes. You can sign documents remotely and get them verified over the internet only.
Moreover, you can also monitor the documents in real-time. If there are any changes made to the online documents then you will know almost immediately because there is an audit trail associated with documents. The complete process that involves you to create digital signature free is transparent and digitized. From creating, sending, formatting, authenticating, and saving, all of it is user-friendly and convenient.
- Security and Safety: The innovative technology used in online signing keeps the digital signature safe and secure. This is not true in handwritten signatures. The traditional signatures are often prone to get forged, tampered and misplaced in case an unforeseen event occurs.
On the other hand, the digital signature methods let you know even when a small character is changed or deleted in the document. Encryption leaves a trail that can be used to see any kind of forgery incident. Digital signatures online use strong security protocols for receiving, sending, and storing documents electronically.
Other than making document signing easy, the use of a digital signature is useful in recording important evidence related to signing online transactions. This can help in ensuring additional authenticity for the important documents.
- No Paperwork: It can get pretty draining to deal with heaps of paperwork for businesses and individuals. One can end up wasting a lot of time and energy in paperwork management which can actually be used elsewhere for improving a business. More paperwork also creates a need for increased storage space.
Also, each time you see a document, you will have to see many piles of papers to access it. The use of free digital signatures lets your documents remain in digital form for very long. The documents can be created, signed, and saved online. There is no requirement for a hard copy at any time which means paperwork is eliminated and becomes easy.
- Lesser Costs: As we just stated above, digital signatures lead to the elimination of paperwork. There is no need to pay for postage, storage, management, and courier, or even document handling fees.
You can sign multiple documents at a lesser cost and time by using the digital software application. This additional time and cost can be used for focusing on other important things for the business. You can also use digital signatures online for signing and editing documents easily.
- Improved Decision Making: People find themselves stuck in decision-making when the documents take so long to get signed by numerous parties involved. If the time taken to get the documents signed is more, it will take much longer to implement a decision into action.
There are times when it becomes difficult to make good decisions because of lengthy processes and formalities. To solve this problem, the use of a digital signature can reduce the lag between a decision and its implementation.
The formalities and approval process gets quick because all the involved parties are able to sign documents within a few minutes. This helps in official confirmation quickly while also making sure that the decision-making is quick and effective.
- Sustainable: In case you wish to make a business sustainable then it is important you adopt paperless technology. With increased paper consumption, the environment is harmed because trees get cut in abundance for paper production.
The digital signature online avoids damaging the environment because it is paperless. It helps in protecting the environment which is a good thing for business and nature.
Conclusion:
The global implementation of digital signatures is rising every day because of the ease of use, quick return on investment, and the time that it saves. The manual signing of documents is soon going to be replaced completely by digital signatures.
If you haven’t yet explored the use of digital signatures then we suggest you do the same and run parallel with the developing world. You will discover that the process is extremely simple.
Author Bio
Hi I am John Gomez and I have been working as a content creator, for the last three years. I have been associated with WeSignature and have been offering my sales and marketing expertise to the organization.
