Selective Disclosure

Selective disclosure is the ability to prove a specific fact about yourself without revealing all your information. For example: proving you're over 18 without revealing your exact birth date, or proving you hold an NFT without revealing which one.

How Selective Disclosure Works

The basic pattern:

1. Commitment — you commit to a piece of information by storing a hash on-chain
2. Proof — when needed, you reveal a subset of the information along with a zero-knowledge proof
3. Verification — the verifier checks the proof against the on-chain commitment

Private data → Commit (hash) → Store on-chain
                                 ↓
Proof request → Reveal subset + ZK proof → Verify against commitment

Use Cases on Terp Network

Implementation Patterns

Hash Chains

The simplest form of selective disclosure uses hash chains. A user stores H(secret || salt) on-chain. Later, they reveal (secret, salt) to prove they know the original data.

// Pseudocode: commit-reveal pattern
commit = sha256(secret ++ salt)
// Store commit on-chain
// Later:
reveal(secret, salt)
// On-chain: verify sha256(secret ++ salt) == stored_commit

Merkle Proofs

For more granular disclosure, data is structured as a Merkle tree. A user proves membership of a leaf without revealing the entire tree.

Merkle disclosure diagram scaffold — a diagram showing a Merkle tree where a user proves membership of one leaf (disclosed) while keeping other leaves (undisclosed) hidden. The proof path goes from leaf to root.

Zero-Knowledge Proofs

ZK proofs enable arbitrary selective disclosure without revealing underlying data. Terp Network supports ZK circuits through:

• PollRegistry — verifiable vote tallying
• zk-CosmWasm VM — private contract execution (future)
• Custom circuits — deployable via the circuit module

Selective Disclosure in Practice

For wallet integrations, selective disclosure enables:

• Login without identity — prove wallet ownership without sharing address
• Private airdrops — claim an airdrop without linking to your on-chain activity
• Compliance — meet regulatory requirements without exposing user data

Selective disclosure wallet flow scaffold — a sequence diagram showing a user generating a proof in their wallet, submitting it to a dApp, and the dApp verifying against on-chain commitments.

Further Reading

• Privacy overview — broader privacy context
• ZK resources — circuit development and tooling
• Wallet integration guides — privacy-preserving wallet connections