Commit & Reveal — human.cv Docs

The mechanism that lets you contribute in the dark and prove it was you later — disclosed entirely on your terms.

The commit

When you publish, you also post a commitment to Base: a hash binding the artifact to a derived key. On its own the commitment reveals nothing — not the artifact, not the author, not the link to your root. It simply fixes the fact that something existed at a moment in time, signed by some key.

The reveal

Later, a reveal is a selective-disclosure proof. You demonstrate that the committed key descends from your root, and therefore that the contribution is yours. You choose the audience — one recruiter, a DAO, or the entire world — and the moment.

Reveal ≠ register

Revealing does not create the link; it discloses a link that was true from the instant you committed. Timestamps are preserved, so priority and authorship hold up even when disclosed years later.

The timeline

t₀ — commit. Publish + post a hash. Detached from you.
t₀…tₙ — accumulate. A real, timestamped track record grows under the key.
tₙ — reveal. Prove descent from your root to a chosen audience. The whole history becomes provably yours.

Granularity

Disclosure is not all-or-nothing. You can reveal a single artifact, an entire handle’s history, or a whole quarter of contributions — and you can reveal to different audiences independently. The same primitive scales from “show one person” to “announce publicly.”

Reveals are one-way in practice

Cryptographically you control what you disclose, but once a proof is shared with someone, you cannot un-tell them. Reveal deliberately.