About Bernstein

Leveling the IP playing field through cryptography and blockchain.

Our mission

Bernstein's mission is to democratize IP protection: to give innovators and creatives the peace of mind that their IP rights are easy to claim and backed by solid evidence, and that their inventions and artworks are safely stored. Every certificate is anchored on the Bitcoin blockchain, with a qualified timestamp when you need one.

Our story

Bernstein is a blockchain-based intellectual property protection platform. Creators, startups, and companies use it to certify digital assets with verifiable proof of existence, ownership, and integrity - without ever exposing confidential content.

Bernstein traces its origins to Clipperz, the pioneering zero-knowledge password manager created by Marco Barulli and Giulio Cesare in 2007. Clipperz was one of the first web applications in the world to perform cryptographic operations directly in the browser - years before the W3C WebCrypto API existed and before Stanford's JavaScript crypto library became a widely used reference. This radical commitment to an architecture where "the server learns nothing" later became the technical DNA of Bernstein.

In 2016, Marco moved to Munich to launch Bernstein. The idea was simple: apply zero-knowledge and modern cryptography to intellectual property, and use the Bitcoin blockchain as a public registry no one can quietly rewrite.

That same year, at a Bitcoin meetup in Munich, he met Paul Reboh. Marco brought the zero-knowledge architecture and the product vision; Paul brought more than a decade of full-stack and software-architecture experience in banking. By the end of 2016, they were building Bernstein together.

Recognition came early. A World Trade Organization publication described Bernstein's blockchain trail of innovation records in 2018, the year we added Chinese trusted timestamps. In 2022, the World Intellectual Property Organization's blockchain whitepaper listed Bernstein among the established providers of blockchain IP registration.

Today Paul and Marco run Bernstein from Strasbourg, France, for customers in more than 40 countries, and the platform keeps growing.

Our technology

The tools we use to protect your intellectual property.

Strong cryptography

Your files are hashed and encrypted using industry-standard algorithms, so your intellectual property stays confidential and any change to it shows.

Blockchain technology

The Bitcoin blockchain serves as a public registry for your timestamps and certificates - verifiable worldwide, and already accepted as evidence by courts in several countries.

Independent verification

Your proof lives on the public Bitcoin network and can be checked with open tools, without relying on Bernstein or any single server.

The people

The founders

French, Italian, French-German: three people from different backgrounds with one goal, to make IP protection accessible to everyone, everywhere.

Paul Reboh

CEO of Bernstein. Paul sets the company's strategy and leads its operations and the development of the platform. As Bernstein's first CTO, he built the core technology, including the zero-knowledge architecture.

Marco Barulli

Founder of Bernstein and creator of Clipperz, one of the first zero-knowledge web applications. Marco shapes the product vision and leads Bernstein's research on blockchain evidence.

Jean-Maxime Rivière

Former cofounder and Bernstein's first head of sales. JM built the first partnerships with law firms and accelerators across Europe and, in 2018, wrote an article at TUM on blockchain for IP, published in Junior Management Science.

JM has since moved on to new ventures. Paul and Marco run Bernstein today, and the three remain close.

Why Bernstein?

Bernstein is the German word for "amber" - tree resin that time, pressure, and temperature transform into gemstones, often preserving organic elements intact for millions of years.

Similarly, Bernstein's web app helps create digital gemstones that preserve and protect your sparks of genius and creativity using strong cryptography, blockchain technology, and the emerging technologies of the decentralized web.

Encryption is a powerful defensive weapon for free people. It is hard to think of a more powerful, less dangerous tool for liberty.
— Esther Dyson, EFF