How Does Hashing Compare to Traditional Methods like Notarization for Contract Integrity?

Hashing provides a faster, universally verifiable, and cryptographically stronger method for proving contract integrity than traditional notarization. Notarization relies on the trust of a third-party authority and physical or digital stamps.

Hashing provides a mathematical proof that the data has not changed since the hash was generated. This allows for automated, peer-to-peer verification without a trusted intermediary, which is fundamental to decentralized finance (DeFi).