Final answer:
Certificates are predominantly used in asymmetric encryption, where they associate a public key with its owning entity to establish a trusted communication.
Step-by-step explanation:
Certificates are typically used in asymmetric encryption. In asymmetric encryption, there are two different keys involved: a public key and a private key.
The public key can be widely distributed and is used to encrypt messages, while the private key is kept secret and is used to decrypt messages. Certificates help establish a trust relationship by associating a public key with the entity that owns the private key. This technique is widely used in various security protocols to ensure secure communication over the internet.