Why Is the Inclusion of a “Salt” or “Nonce” Critical in the Commitment Process?
The inclusion of a random salt (or nonce) prevents a brute-force attack on the commitment. Without a salt, an attacker could calculate the hashes of all possible simple orders (e.g.
“buy 1 ETH at $2000”) and compare them to the on-chain commitment, thus revealing the order. The salt makes the commitment unique and unpredictable, ensuring that the attacker cannot guess the hidden order details by simply pre-calculating common transaction hashes.
Glossar
Commitment
Allocation ⎊ Commitment within cryptocurrency, options, and derivatives contexts frequently manifests as capital allocation strategies, dictating the proportion of a portfolio dedicated to specific assets or derivative positions.
Random Salt
Derivation ⎊ Random salt, within cryptocurrency derivatives and options trading, represents a cryptographically secure, randomly generated value used to introduce unpredictability into processes like signature schemes and key derivation functions, mitigating potential vulnerabilities associated with deterministic approaches.
Commitment Scheme
Mechanism ⎊ A commitment scheme, within cryptocurrency and financial derivatives, establishes a verifiable agreement on a future value without revealing it prematurely; this is crucial for applications like time-locked transactions and decentralized exchanges, ensuring trustless execution of complex strategies.
Salt
Derivatives ⎊ The term "Salt" within cryptocurrency and derivatives contexts denotes a specific type of perpetual futures contract, primarily observed on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) like GMX.