ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

shamir secret sharing

Shamir secret sharing is like a puzzle. Imagine a secret message written on a piece of paper. Now imagine that you cut up the paper into many pieces, and gave each piece to different people. None of those people can read the whole message, but if several of them get together, they can put the paper back together and read the message. This is like shamir secret sharing, except the secret message is a secret thing, such as a password or bank account number. Shamir secret sharing is a way to make sure that the secret can only be read by the right people. It splits the secret into pieces, and gives each piece to a different person. In order to read the secret, all of the people with a piece of the secret must get together. This makes sure that the secret is kept safe.