Skip to main content

Cryptographic Commitment Schemes

Definition

Cryptographic commitment schemes are protocols that allow a party to commit to a chosen value while keeping it secret. These schemes possess two primary properties: hiding, which ensures the committed value remains unknown to others, and binding, which guarantees the committer cannot alter the value after commitment. They are fundamental building blocks for many cryptographic protocols, including zero-knowledge proofs and secure multi-party computation. Such schemes enable verifiable secrecy, allowing a party to later reveal the committed value and prove its authenticity.