Checksums for cover files that still look ‘the same’

Eyes are generous. A cover that lost a strip of cyan in the masthead can still ‘feel’ heroic under kitchen light. A checksum is not generous. It either matches the number you wrote on drop week or it does not.

Export the cover from the viewer you actually use. Hash it before you rename it. Put the short form of the hash in the filename so a future you does not have to open a terminal of rumours. If a friend sends ‘the same cover’ by chat, hash theirs too. Conversation gets shorter.

This habit is preservation, not trading. A matching hash does not mean a listing is honest. A mismatched hash does not mean someone stole a token. It means the file in front of you is not the file you documented.