The advent of modern digital technology opens many doors of opportunities for private individuals and businesses. Gone are the old days when you had to wait for a mail carrier or human messenger to bring the documents you needed to sign. Now, all you need are online tools, such as a digital signature.
You’ve undoubtedly done a digital signature from a salesperson or a law firm. But what exactly is a digital signature, and why should you use one? Read on below to find out.
What Is A Digital Signature?
A digital signature is the digitized version of a person’s handwritten signature. Digital signatures are also known as online signatures and electronic signatures or e-signatures. You no longer need to use a pen to create an authentic signature if you have a digital signature.
Why Should You Use A Digital Signature?
Here are some viable reasons to use a digital signature:
For Security
How do you know if e-signatures are secure? Automation and blockchain technology may seem too technical for you. But these technologies make digital contracts and signatures more secure now than ever.
Many individuals trust digital signatures for legal documents, business contracts, receivables, and more because they’re highly secure.
A digital certificate is automatically generated by electronic signature, following a strict verification process. This proof shows how the digital document was signed. Therefore, digital signatures are universally accepted.
As mentioned, blockchain technology makes digital signatures secure. This technology provides strong authentication using private keys to determine who signed the document.
The hashing technique of blockchain ensures that the message and e-signature came from the genuine sender. Furthermore, a person can’t deny affixing his signature on a digital document with blockchain’s non-repudiation feature.
For Convenience
The most significant benefit of digital signatures is convenience. And this is what people need because of their busy schedules.
Before digital signatures existed, people must sign paper documents using a pen. But the problem is not all people are in the same place and time to sign paper-based documents. So, they need to wait hours, weeks, or even months to have everybody sign a single document.
E-signatures resolved all the problems associated with handwritten signatures and paper-based documents. You can send the digital document to anyone from anywhere worldwide to have it signed. The signatory can return the document to you with his electronic signature within minutes.
Many Practical Applications
Digital signatures have a broad range of applications in people’s daily lives, such as the following:
- Real Estate Transactions
Are you buying a new apartment? You can affix your digital signature to real estate documents for faster transactions. Real estate sellers, buyers, and agents can use their smartphones or tablets to put their e-signatures on listing agreements, lease agreements, purchase offers, and contracts.
- Healthcare Transactions
Are you tired of long queues in clinics and hospitals? Digital signatures streamline the completion of healthcare admissions forms, including patient informed consent and medical records release forms. Instead of using manual admission forms, digital signatures can help healthcare workers quickly access and enter patient data via electronic health records (EHR). This helps improve patient experience because data retrieval is quicker.
- Legal Transactions
Are you handling a car accident claim? Submit all electronically signed paperwork and evidence to your lawyer for faster legal processing and settlement.
Environment Friendly
Are you fed up with piles of mail in your letterbox? Not only do they cause confusion and risk of misplacing, but they are also unsightly clutter and rubbish. So, embrace e-signature to organize your home and mindset. Aside from that, you can help preserve trees and protect Mother Earth.
Digital signatures are environmentally friendly. They help reduce the carbon footprint of letter carriers, messengers, and shipping companies in delivering paper-based documents. Of course, individuals and companies can go paperless, thus, helping save trees and reduce deforestation.
Economical
Digital signatures don’t require people to travel or use paper. They can save money from commuting, petrol, paper, and other related expenses related to signing paper-based documents.
In the same way, you can adopt paperless billing and other transactions with digital signatures to save money. Aside from the money savings, you can save time and effort processing paperwork the traditional method.
Conclusion
Digital signatures are essential in today’s fast-paced, modern era. They make business, legal, real estate, health, and other transactions quicker. Since electronic signatures are secure, you gain peace of mind knowing that all your transactions are valid. Indeed, e-signatures can make your life a lot easier. So, it’s high time to learn and use digital signatures in your day-to-day life.