There is absolutely no proof that one-way functions exist: therefore this is not a 'proof' of existence of files at a certain date.* It is just a strong indication of it.<p>* that is, at some future date (or secretly, today) an algorithm could be discovered breaking the one-way function used to generate these hashes. Then a collision could be found, perhaps with chosen-prefix. Meaning an arbitrary file could be suffixed so that it looks as though that is what was hashed today. In the past, many hash algorithms thought to be strong were weakened in this way.