Patent ID: 7698557

Claim:
A method for generating a digital certificate, comprising the steps of: providing for receiving a new digital record at a service provider computer from a second computer; providing for assigning a sequence value to the new digital record at the service provider computer, and storing data including digital records and hash values in a repository; providing for generating a first composite digital value by applying a first function to a first plurality of the data stored in the repository, wherein the first function computes a set of root values for a non-connected binary hash forest; providing for generating a first digital certificate, wherein the first digital certificate comprises at least the sequence value and the first composite digital value; providing for adding the new digital record to the repository; providing for generating a sequence of hash values and storing the sequence of hash values in the repository, by applying a second function to a second plurality of the data stored in the repository, wherein the second plurality of the data includes the new digital record, and wherein the second function computes the non-connected binary hash forest; providing for generating a composite sequence value; providing for generating a second composite digital value by applying a third function to a third plurality of the data stored in the repository; providing for generating an interval digital value by applying a fourth function to a fourth plurality of the data stored in the repository, wherein the interval digital value is based upon the sequence value and the composite sequence value; and, providing for generating a second digital certificate, wherein the second digital certificate comprises at least the sequence value and the interval digital value.