What is VRFs?

Verifiable Random Functions (VRFs) are cryptographic hash functions that provide publicly verifiable proofs of their outputs' correctness and unpredictability. A VRF takes a secret key and an input, and produces a pseudorandom output along with a proof. Anyone with the corresponding public key can verify that the output was indeed generated from the input and the secret key, ensuring that the output is both unique to the input and unpredictable to anyone without the secret key. VRFs are commonly used in blockchain applications for selecting validators or lottery winners in a fair and unbiased manner, and in other distributed systems where randomness needs to be generated and verified securely.