Method for registering an electronically stored digital document, comprising the steps of a) providing to an owning party an N version of the digital document and a private ownership key, which private ownership key is a private key in an asymmetric cryptographic key pair also comprising a corresponding public ownership key; b) calculating a first digital document hash value based upon a first payload of the N version of the document; c) the owning party using the private ownership key to calculate, based upon the first digital document hash value, a first digital document signature of the N version of the document; d) in a centralized or distributed server function or database (110,112,120,122), digitally storing in an electronic digital document register not the N version of the document, but the first document signature as well as the public ownership key and the first document hash value; e) amending the N version of the digital document by appending information to the N version of the digital document to produce a N+1 version of the digital document; f) calculating a second digital document hash value based upon an appended payload of the N+1 version of the document as well as upon said first payload; g) the owning party using said private ownership key to calculate, based upon the second digital document hash value, a second digital document signature of the N+1 version of the document; h) in said electronic digital document register storing not the N+1 version of the document, but the second document signature and the second document hash value, as well as said public ownership key or a different public ownership key of a different asymmetric cryptographic key pair also comprising a different corresponding private ownership key. a) providing to an owning party an N version of the digital document and a private ownership key, which private ownership key is a private key in an asymmetric cryptographic key pair also comprising a corresponding public ownership key; b) calculating a first digital document hash value based upon a first payload of the N version of the document; c) the owning party using the private ownership key to calculate, based upon the first digital document hash value, a first digital document signature of the N version of the document; d) in a centralized or distributed server function or database (110,112,120,122), digitally storing in an electronic digital document register not the N version of the document, but the first document signature as well as the public ownership key and the first document hash value; e) amending the N version of the digital document by appending information to the N version of the digital document to produce a N+1 version of the digital document; f) calculating a second digital document hash value based upon an appended payload of the N+1 version of the document as well as upon said first payload; g) the owning party using said private ownership key to calculate, based upon the second digital document hash value, a second digital document signature of the N+1 version of the document; h) in said electronic digital document register storing not the N+1 version of the document, but the second document signature and the second document hash value, as well as said public ownership key or a different public ownership key of a different asymmetric cryptographic key pair also comprising a different corresponding private ownership key.