Decayfmt – a file format that corrupts itself a little every time you open it
Decayfmt is a unique file format that intentionally corrupts data every time a file is opened, with the rate of decay determined by an instability parameter. It serves as a social experiment in digital impermanence rather than a security or encryption tool.
Why it matters
It challenges traditional concepts of digital preservation and data integrity by introducing planned obsolescence at the file level.
A file format that corrupts itself a little every time you open it. Every open permanently damages the file on disk, by an amount baked into the filename, before it is ever shown to you. There is no recovery from the file alone. The file is the only copy that matters, and every read destroys a little more of it.
x is a positive integer in the filename, the instability parameter. Higher x means more corruption per open.
The grid above is one image encoded at x=1 , x=3 , x=8 , and x=15 , each opened the same number of times. Same picture, four rates of decay. To follow a single instability value across individual opens instead, each open corrupting the file further on disk before it is ever shown, with no way back:
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