LibraryMarkets2017Design paperCorpus record
Discreet Log Contracts
Discreet log contracts. Thaddeus Dryja.
The oracle publishes a signature on an outcome. Parties use adaptor signatures so the signature that settles the contract also reveals the oracle's secret, without the oracle knowing which contract it served.
A reading of the public document. Not a copy of it, and not a claim about a later network that reused the name.
An oracle pitch that puts the contract address in the oracle's log has refused the privacy property this paper is about.
- Evidence
- Primary paper
- Re-measured
- No
- Assumptions
- 3
- Records linked
- 2
Code
Source, repository, and what is actually hosted
- Dryja, 2017https://adiabat.github.io/dlc.pdf
- The source URL is not a GitHub repository. No code remote is invented.
- Full text is not mirrored. Public availability is not a licence to copy the file onto this site.
- Add to a reading list
01 Claim ledger
What the paper is allowed to say
Each row is a sentence already in the study. The status is the same on every row: a model claim, not a live measurement.
Claim 01 · Paper model
The defect
A bet that settles on a chain wants an oracle. Publishing the oracle's answer in clear couples the oracle to every contract that used it.
Claim 02 · Paper model
The rule
The oracle publishes a signature on an outcome. Parties use adaptor signatures so the signature that settles the contract also reveals the oracle's secret, without the oracle knowing which contract it served.
Claim 03 · Paper model
How it is put together
The oracle does not see the contract. The contract pays out only if the oracle's signature is published. Adaptor signatures are the join.
Claim 04 · Paper model
Where the claim stops
The oracle can still lie, go silent, or sign two outcomes if the scheme allows it.
02 Three cuts
Observation, model, falsifier
A desk does not stop at the summary. Each claim is cut three ways, using only this study's own assumptions and checks. Nothing here is a new figure.
01 The defect
02 The rule
Observation
What the study says
The oracle publishes a signature on an outcome. Parties use adaptor signatures so the signature that settles the contract also reveals the oracle's secret, without the oracle knowing which contract it served.
Model
What has to hold
The oracle can still lie, go silent, or sign two outcomes if the scheme allows it.
03 How it is put together
04 Where the claim stops
03 Sequence
One action, as an operating tape
04 Load-bearing
The argument, and where a pitch drops it
Why it is still on the desk
The cut
An oracle pitch that puts the contract address in the oracle's log has refused the privacy property this paper is about.
Why it carries weight
If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.
Where it is dropped
The oracle can still lie, go silent, or sign two outcomes if the scheme allows it.
After the text
The cut
DLC work on Bitcoin continued from this note. Attestation schemes differ. The adaptor-signature join is the idea.
Why it carries weight
If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.
Where it is dropped
A later client, parameter or reward formula is a different object from this paragraph.
05 Register
What has to be true
Model · Not re-measured
The oracle can still lie, go silent, or sign two outcomes if the scheme allows it.
Model · Not re-measured
This is not a price feed for a lending protocol.
Model · Not re-measured
It does not remove the need to list the outcomes in advance.
06 Divergence
What happened after the paper
DLC work on Bitcoin continued from this note. Attestation schemes differ. The adaptor-signature join is the idea.
A later client, parameter set, or reward formula is a different object. Cite this paper for the mechanism. Cite a primary release for the network. This desk has not re-run the proof.
07 Pre-mortem
What to check before you use the idea
- 0 of 3 marked on this browser. A mark is a reading note, not a pass, a rating, or a recommendation.
08 Anatomy
The paper, in the order a builder needs
The problem it names
A bet that settles on a chain wants an oracle. Publishing the oracle's answer in clear couples the oracle to every contract that used it.
What the design proposes
How the mechanism is specified
What this page does not treat as proven
- The oracle can still lie, go silent, or sign two outcomes if the scheme allows it.
- This is not a price feed for a lending protocol.
- It does not remove the need to list the outcomes in advance.
09 Lexicon
Terms, opened into the record
- Adaptor signature
- A signature that becomes valid when a secret, here the oracle's, is known.
- Outcome
- One of the results the contract listed before locking funds.
10 Repository
Every linked record on this page
Underlined words open a page that already exists: a concept, a protocol profile, a failure record, or another paper. If a word is not underlined, this desk does not have a record for it.
This is Blockchain Lab's reading of a public design paper. It is not the paper, not a copy of it, and not an offer of tokens, equity, custody or a partnership. Later network behaviour can diverge from the text. Nothing here is investment, legal or technical advice.
Research status: Design paper. Last reviewed: 1 October 2026. This is a reading of a public paper, not investment, legal or security advice.