A multi-party commitment method is provided whereby a joining node uses contributions provided by contributor nodes in a peer-to-peer overlay network to generate a node identifier. The joining node generates a first contribution and sends a join request to an introducer node (or a plurality of contributor nodes), where the join request seeks to obtain one or more contributions for generating the node identifier within an identifier space of the overlay network. A hash of the first contribution may be included as part of the join request. In response, the joining node may receive a plurality of contributions, wherein the contributions are bound to each other and the first contribution by a prior external multi-node commitment operation. The joining node can then generate its node identifier as a function of the first contribution and the received contributions. Consequently, collusion between nodes and malicious manipulation during ID generation can be frustrated.