Definition ∞ A verifiable commitment is a cryptographic proof that a party has chosen a specific value without revealing that value, which can be later opened and verified. This cryptographic primitive allows one party to commit to a piece of information at one point in time and reveal it later, with a guarantee that the revealed information is indeed what was committed to. It ensures that the committed value cannot be changed after the commitment is made, and that the commitment itself does not leak information about the value. Verifiable commitments are essential for building fair and secure protocols, preventing cheating in decentralized applications, and enabling various privacy-preserving technologies. They provide integrity and non-repudiation for digital data.
Context ∞ Verifiable commitments are frequently discussed in the context of advanced cryptographic protocols, such as zero-knowledge proofs, secure multi-party computation, and fair lotteries on blockchains. News reports may reference these commitments when explaining how certain privacy features or fairness guarantees are achieved in new decentralized systems. Understanding this concept is key to appreciating the underlying security and trust mechanisms in cutting-edge blockchain applications.
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