The History of Signatures
A signature is a procedure used for authenticating a document with legal authority. About 5,000 years ago the ancient Egyptians made use of hieroglyphs to imprint their sign. Two thousand years henceforth the Phoenicians created the first alphabet. The Greeks endorsed and adapted the writing. The idea appealed to the Romans they started signing their name in the Latin alphabet. At that time, it was used for written laws and military orders.
For a long time, signatures and red seals of wax were used by the rich nobles through Kings and the Catholic church seniors. Later general population followed the method. The English Parliament was the pioneer in adopting signature as official authorization of any contract. The literate found the proposal very convenient.
The advancement of Technology
With the invention of printing cloning of signatures was made possible. That happened in 1440. The actual technology progress for signatures came about when the fax machine made an appearance in the 1980s. The signature document could be sent through phone line globally quickly. The internet shaped the evolution of the signature. The e-commerce vis mail was communicated. The limitation was that both parties had to have a printer, ink, and paper. Other frustration included paper jams, slow machine etc or ink empty.
Meaning of Electronic signature
The electronic signature is constructed through several parts including the signature itself. The electronically signed document contemplated legally binding in the court of law the e-signature should be built with the specification and consent and intent of the signer. These come with built-in verification methods. There is a need for a digital paper trail that makes it possible for an e-signature to be audited.
E-signature market is quick and simple to use even by a novice. It is for this reason e-signature use has been caught for the legal documents. E-signatures is the method to keep documents from being tampered with. This is so because e-signatures need several layers of user authentication. Compared to wet signatures were written by hand e-signatures are more secure.
To begin with, the signer, complete the required fields like name, and date and then sign the document electronically. The signed document is uploaded on the specified website. It is automatically stored for future use. It requires few clicks to sign and send a legal document that is binding.
The digital signature market or E-signature was made legally binding in 2000 when the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act was signed into law.
The advantage of e-signatures
- The document signed through the digital signature method is user-friendly fast, simple, and secure. This method is economical as paper, copying ink and storage space. Moreover, it is less time-consuming. It is easy to organize it. The important documents are not destroyed in the occurrence of floods or fires.
- The workflow is rapid as a document can be dispatched to hundreds of users at once through the click of a button.
- The users can use their created templates on documents. It will need one time work and use for unlimited time.
- The content to be added to the document is specified and chances of error are reduced.
- E-signature adds an extra layer of security through passcodes, encryption, as well as two-factor authentication.
- It can be saved in the document through Dropbox, and Google Drive.
The digital customer can demand services anywhere and anytime. All that is needed is a click of the mouse. The access is secure which gives peace of mind.