Can I use a TaaS certificate as evidence in a chargeback dispute?

A TaaS certificate cryptographically proves that a specific piece of evidence existed, unmodified, at a specific point in time. It does not guarantee you will win a dispute: no official rule from Visa, Mastercard, Amazon, or eBay currently recognizes third-party cryptographic certification as a distinct evidence category. What it does is make your evidence harder to dispute and easier for a reviewer to verify quickly.

What should I certify — the delivery confirmation, or something else?

Delivery confirmation (tracking, signature, photo) is the least useful thing to certify — it is already provided by your carrier, and disputes are lost every day despite it. The highest-value moment to certify is the condition of the item before shipping: a SHA-256 hash of a pre-shipment photo, timestamped and signed. No carrier or platform currently records this moment.

How does the photo certification work — do you store my photos?

No. TaaS never stores or sees your photos. You compute a SHA-256 hash of the photo file and only that hash is sent to TaaS to be timestamped and signed with RFC 3161 and RSA-PSS-SHA256. If the photo is altered later, even by one pixel, the hash will not match. As far as we have found, no other chargeback-evidence or fraud-protection service applies this approach specifically to pre-shipment photos.

Shopify Integration

Proof of delivery isn't enough.
Certify what happens before it ships.

Shopify merchants lose chargebacks even when they have tracking numbers. Couriers certify delivery. Nobody certifies what the product looked like before it left your hands — or what the buyer agreed to. TaaS covers those gaps.

What TaaS does and doesn't do: TaaS creates independent, tamper-proof records of events you already control — product condition, buyer agreements, handoffs. We cover gaps where no one currently certifies anything. We are running a live pilot to measure whether these certificates change dispute outcomes. We do not promise you will win chargebacks; that depends on payment network policies, dispute specifics, and factors we don't control.

What TaaS certifies

Five events — in order of what matters most

Priority 01 is the gap nobody else closes. Priority 05 already exists via your carrier.

Product condition before packaging

Highest impact

A SHA-256 hash of a photo taken immediately before the item is packed. Shopify has no record of this moment. Couriers start their chain of custody after pickup. This is the gap that matters most — and the one nobody else closes.

Covers: "Item not as described" disputes

Buyer communications

High impact

Agreements to reship, refund confirmations, delivery confirmations from the buyer. A certified record of what the buyer explicitly agreed to is harder to dispute than a screenshot.

Covers: "Item not received" after buyer confirmed delivery

Consolidated order certificate

High impact

A single certificate linking order creation → packing → courier handoff → delivery. One artifact covers the full chain instead of separate records from Shopify, your 3PL, and the courier.

Covers: Chain-of-custody gaps across systems

Courier handoff

Medium impact

Certification of the moment you transferred the package — not when the courier's system first scanned it (often hours later). Closes the 'we never received it for shipping' gap.

Covers: Disputes filed between order creation and first scan

Delivery confirmation

Lower priority

Courier signature, photo, or GPS confirmation. Already provided by carriers — least value to certify separately. Included for completeness but not a primary TaaS use case.

Already covered by FedEx, UPS, USPS

Integration

Two ways to connect

No code required

Path A — Shopify Webhook

Configure once in Shopify Admin. TaaS auto-certifies every order, fulfillment, and shipment event. No developer needed for setup.

Setup steps

1.Shopify Admin → Settings → Notifications → Webhooks
2. Add webhook for: orders/created, fulfillments/create, fulfillments/shipment_created
3.Set URL to your TaaS webhook endpoint (from your dashboard)
4.Every qualifying event is certified automatically

Covers events 3, 4, and 5. Photo hashing (event 1) and buyer communications (event 2) require Path B — Shopify doesn't emit those natively.

Developer required

Path B — Direct API

POST to /v1/certify from your backend or packing workflow. Covers all 5 events including photo hashing and buyer communications.

POST /v1/certify
X-API-Key: taas_live_xxxx

{
  "type": "pre_ship_photo",
  "payload": {
    "order_id": "shopify_1234",
    "photo_sha256": "a3f4b2c1...",
    "captured_at": "2026-08-28T10:00:00Z"
  }
}

SDK available in Python and JavaScript. See API reference →

FAQ

Questions from Shopify sellers

Start with the sandbox

100 free certifications/day. No credit card. See what gets certified before committing to a plan.

Get your API key → How it works

Proof of delivery isn't enough. Certify what happens before it ships.