diff --git a/crypto/transcript/src/merlin.rs b/crypto/transcript/src/merlin.rs
index 5fe7eb68..ce4ee4d9 100644
--- a/crypto/transcript/src/merlin.rs
+++ b/crypto/transcript/src/merlin.rs
@@ -2,8 +2,18 @@ use core::fmt::{Debug, Formatter};
 
 use crate::Transcript;
 
+/// A wrapper around a Merlin transcript which satisfiees the Transcript API.
+///
+/// Challenges are fixed to 64 bytes, despite Merlin supporting variable length challenges.
+///
+/// This implementation is intended to remain in the spirit of Merlin more than it's intended to be
+/// in the spirit of the provided DigestTranscript. While DigestTranscript uses flags for each of
+/// its different field types, the domain_separate function simply appends a message with a label
+/// of "dom-sep", Merlin's preferred domain separation label. Since this could introduce transcript
+/// conflicts between a domain separation and a message with a label of "dom-sep", the
+/// append_message function uses an assertion to prevent such labels.
 #[derive(Clone)]
-pub struct MerlinTranscript(pub merlin::Transcript);
+pub struct MerlinTranscript(merlin::Transcript);
 // Merlin doesn't implement Debug so provide a stub which won't panic
 impl Debug for MerlinTranscript {
   fn fmt(&self, fmt: &mut Formatter<'_>) -> Result<(), core::fmt::Error> {
@@ -12,11 +22,10 @@ impl Debug for MerlinTranscript {
 }
 
 impl Transcript for MerlinTranscript {
-  // Uses a challenge length of 64 bytes to support wide reduction on generated scalars
-  // From a security level standpoint, this should just be 32 bytes
+  // Uses a challenge length of 64 bytes to support wide reduction on commonly used EC scalars
+  // From a security level standpoint (Merlin targets 128-bits), this should just be 32 bytes
   // From a Merlin standpoint, this should be variable per call
-  // From a practical standpoint, this is a demo file not planned to be used and anything using
-  // this wrapper should be secure with this setting
+  // From a practical standpoint, this should be practical
   type Challenge = [u8; 64];
 
   fn new(name: &'static [u8]) -> Self {
@@ -24,10 +33,14 @@ impl Transcript for MerlinTranscript {
   }
 
   fn domain_separate(&mut self, label: &'static [u8]) {
-    self.append_message(b"dom-sep", label);
+    self.0.append_message(b"dom-sep", label);
   }
 
   fn append_message<M: AsRef<[u8]>>(&mut self, label: &'static [u8], message: M) {
+    assert!(
+      label != "dom-sep".as_bytes(),
+      "\"dom-sep\" is reserved for the domain_separate function",
+    );
     self.0.append_message(label, message.as_ref());
   }