VRFs (Verifiable random functions) are great tools in decentralized systems because they can introduce random oracles into a protocol without the fear of data manipulation from a trusted party. These oracle functions are proven to be as hard to manipulate as breaking a particular cryptographic trapdoor.

See more in Micali's groundbreaking publication: https://people.csail.mit.edu/silvio/Selected%20Scientific%20Papers/Pseudo%20Randomness/Verifiable_Random_Functions.pdf

This elliptic curve instantiation was originally subject to exhaustive research in order to improve DNSSEC and proven to have the Trusted Uniqueness and Selective Pseudorandomness properties: https://eprint.iacr.org/2014/905.pdf

An even more naive explanation of VRFs is that they are HMACs where the key is asymmetric. The parties agree on a pseudorandom function (SHA3) and exchange a proof with the same pseudorandomness that binds to the input but doesn't serve as the only witness (which is the case with simple SHA).

use ecvrf::{VrfSk, VrfPk, VrfProof, keygen, prove, verify};
fn main() {
	let (privkey, pubkey): VrfSk = keygen();
	let input = vec![0xde, 0xad, 0xbe, 0xef];
	let (output, proof) = ecvrf::prove(&input, privkey);
	assert!(ecvrf::verify(&input, &pubkey, output, proof));
}

You can serialize/deserialize each type with the corresponding to_bytes and from_bytes functions

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