Verifiable Delay Function (VDF)
Also known as: Time-Locked Function, Cryptographic Delay Function, Sequential Verification Primitive
A cryptographic function that requires a guaranteed minimum time to compute and is easily verifiable.
A Verifiable Delay Function (VDF) is a cryptographic primitive designed to take a known, sequential amount of time to compute—regardless of hardware—while allowing fast verification. VDFs are important in blockchain for generating randomness, ensuring fairness in lotteries, and mitigating miner manipulation in consensus protocols. Unlike parallelizable hashes, VDFs enforce a real-time delay, adding trustless time constraints to decentralized systems. Ethereum researchers have explored VDFs for future consensus enhancements and unbiased on-chain randomness.