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Digital Signature

Cryptographic proof, generated with a private key, that a transaction was authorized by the account owner and hasn't been altered.

FBFenwei BianAuthorVZVictor ZhouEditorJuly 2, 2026
  • glossary

A digital signature is cryptographic proof that a message or transaction was authorized by the holder of a specific private key, without ever exposing that key. The signer runs the private key and the transaction data through a signing algorithm; anyone can then verify the result against the matching public key to confirm authenticity, and any change to the signed data invalidates the signature. Bitcoin and Ethereum use ECDSA over the secp256k1 curve for account signatures; other designs use EdDSA for deterministic signing or BLS signatures, which can be aggregated so a network can verify thousands of signatures — such as validator attestations — as one compact operation. A tokenized domain's transfers and DNS updates are authorized the same way: a valid digital signature from the wallet holding the domain's NFT is what proves the owner approved the change.

Related keywords

  • ECDSA
  • EdDSA
  • BLS signature
  • transaction signing
  • signature verification
  • Digital Signature
  • what is Digital Signature
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Contributors

Fenwei Bian

Software Developer & Writer • Namefi
Author

Fenwei Bian is a software developer in her thirties who spends her working hours in pull requests and her weekends with her hands in soil or sawdust. Years of open source on GitHub taught her that names are interfaces: a good one is clear, honest about what it does, and kind to whoever has to use it next.

She gardens because it rewards patience and punishes wishful thinking, and she does woodwork because a joint either fits or it doesn't. Both habits show up in how she writes about naming — measure twice, check the source, and don't sand over a rough spot and hope no one notices.

For Namefi she writes about how domain markets actually move, the practical trade-offs of tokenizing and flipping names, and picking a domain you'll still be glad you own in twenty years.

GitHub

Victor Zhou

Founder & Standards Editor • Namefi
Editor

Victor Zhou is a technology founder and standards editor focused on digital identity and trust. He founded Namefi, edits Ethereum Improvement Proposals, and previously led smart-contract architecture work at Google Labs.

His work sits at the intersection of naming, ownership, and the systems people use to establish identity online. That perspective makes him especially interested in the way names move between personal meaning, public recognition, and digital infrastructure.

For Namefi, Victor edits and writes about domains as durable digital identity: how names become ownable onchain assets, how tokenization changes custody and trust, and what naming can learn from the systems people use to establish identity online.

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