Glossary
Confidential Transaction
A transaction format that hides the transferred amounts (and sometimes the assets) behind commitments, while still allowing public verification of solvency.
Confidential transactions, proposed by Greg Maxwell in 2015, replace plaintext output amounts with Pedersen commitments. Range proofs (originally Borromean signatures, now Bulletproofs) ensure the hidden amounts are positive and fit in 64 bits, preventing "create out of thin air" attacks.
Liquid Network, Monero (as part of RingCT), and several research designs use confidential transactions. Verifiers can confirm that total inputs equal total outputs (committed sum-to-zero) without learning any individual amount.