New York-based lettrs Inc., the company behind the newly launched e-signature and social media platform Twignature, announced today it has raised $3 million in funding.

The Twignature service provides a way for Twitter users to access what it calls “a digital marketplace for authenticated, distributed and sponsored signatures.”

Using smartphone biometrics and a blockchain distribution method, Twignature gives users the ability to sign their tweets and authenticate signatures with a decentralized platform. Signatures can be anything from physical signatures — such as one would write on a document — to doodles and other works of art.

Drew Bartkiewicz, founder and chief executive of lettrs, said Twignature’s launch expands the company’s cybersignatures technology “with a scalable e-signatures service for social networks.”

A blockchain, also known as distributed ledger technology, can be used to provide a secure, trustworthy platform for authenticating documents using cryptographic signatures. Combining this sort of technology with tweets would provide a way to verify published signatures.

A platform such as Twignature could be used to help reduce the influence of trolls and frauds by adding reputation-sensitive signatures to tweets. As an influential tweet gains more attention, its signature and the person associated with that signature gain more presence and trust in the community. The addition of a signed tweet that can be authenticated adds an extra level of reputation and authenticity.

Last month, Cygnetise Ltd. raised $1.32 million to provide a businesses trustworthy signatory lists using blockchain technology. Blockchain service provider the BitFury Group and Chinese electronic document company BestSign partnered up last year to provide blockchain protection for e-signatures. Blockchain-based signatures can also be used to protect physical documents.

The Twignature app, available now on iTunes and coming soon to Google Play, uses a similar technology to assign a unique number, ledger and seal of authenticity for signed tweets. The data recorded includes signature location, device identity and whether the autograph was associated with a major brand.

The ability for major brands to “tag along” on authenticated tweet signatures is also a big component of the Twignature service. Major brands can add stamps to signatures when they are displayed on Twitter with sponsorship. The same method can be used to allow for raising money and awareness for charities through the branded sponsor.

Image: lettrs