Commitment Scheme

A cryptographic primitive that produces a short 'fingerprint' of a value which hides it (hiding) while binding you to it so you can't later change it (binding) — like sealing a value in an envelope to open later. A simple version hashes a secret with random salt. Commitments underpin fair coin flips, sealed-bid auctions, voting, and privacy systems, where you prove you did something without revealing the details yet.