I thought of a way to think about just using a digital certificate like you get from Identrust, to using a platform like Proof, Pavaso, or EscrowTab.
The status quo was paper and pen (in the general sense). With this media, you could notarize anything, from an 8.5 by 11 inch sheet with almost any content, to a 24 inch by 36 inch mylar land survey drawing, to a refrigerator door.
With just a digital certificate, you could notarize almost any digital file, although some would require more knowledge on the part of the notary than others. You could notarize a movie (.mp4), an Excel file (.xlsx), an AutoCad drawing (.dwg), a C program, or many others. Doesn't really matter what the content is, as long as there isn't something illegal about it.
With a platform, you can only notarize the kinds of files the platform developers think are commercially important, that they think there will be a big market for. This includes PDF, Word, and Excel. In every case I know of, the finished, signed and notarized file must be a PDF. (I admit there is a workaround, I'll explain if anyone's interested.)
It seems to me those states that pass rules saying it isn't good enough to have a digital certificate for IPEN, you must use a platform that checks your notary commission before enabling you and keeps track of commission revocations and revokes your access if your commission is revoked are limiting their notaries to only the use cases the platforms think are commercially important, and potentially tying the hands high-tech businesses in their state behind their backs because they can't do anything the platforms have recognized as important. |
