NIST Call for Multi-Party Threshold Schemes: Brief Notes at RWC 2023

Abstract. The paradigm of threshold cryptography allows for decentralization of trust across multiple parties, regarding the creation, storage and use of the private/secret keys required by cryptographic primitives. The "NIST First Call for Multi-Party Threshold Schemes" (NISTIR 8214C ipd) [initial public draft published in January 2023] promotes a process toward a structured collection and analysis of threshold schemes for multiple primitives, to help support future NIST recommendations and processes. The call is organized in two categories:

• Cat1, for selected NIST-standardized primitives, will help assess threshold friendliness and develop future recommendations and guidelines for their threshold schemes.
• Cat2, open to primitives not standardized by NIST, includes primitives for "regular" schemes (e.g., signatures and encryption schemes threshold-friendlier than NIST standardized ones), other schemes with advanced functional features (e.g., homomorphic, identity-based or attribute-based), and certain zero-knowledge proofs of knowledge, as well as auxiliary gadgets. Their analysis will help assess new interests on primitives not standardized by NIST, and develop future recommendations.

Submissions should include security characterization, technical description, open-source implementation, and performance evaluation. The community participation can be helpful across three phases:

1. Providing feedback about the draft call (till 2023-April-10)
2. Submitting schemes (after the final call is published)
3. Participating in the ensuing public analysis of submitted schemes.