Schmivitz: VOLEitH Based ZK Gadgets for Threshold Cryptography

"Preview Talk" (by Team Schmivitz) @ MPTS 2026, in reply to the NIST Threshold Call

Abstract: This preview talk presents Schmivitz, which we plan to submit to the NIST Threshold Call. Schmivitz is a Vector Oblivious Linear Evaluation in the Head (VOLEitH) Zero-Knowledge (ZK) system that includes two gadgets, Weak VOLEs and VOLEitH, which can be used as building blocks for cryptographic applications such as threshold signature and encryption schemes. We also define Random All-But-One Vector Commitments as an internal gadget which is a core building block of VOLEitH-proofs, but is equally important in other Zero-Knowledge Proof systems. We have an open source Rust reference implementation of Schmivitz and discuss preliminary performance results.

Joint work: Carsten Baum, Emmanuela Orsini, Peter Scholl, Benoit Razet, Marcella Hastings, Shibam Mukherjee, Christian Rechberger, James Parker.

[Slides] Suggested readings:

• Preview Writeup: Schmivitz: VOLEitH Based ZK Gadgets for Threshold Cryptography
• Publicly Verifiable Zero-Knowledge and Post-Quantum Signatures from VOLE-in-the-Head (ia.cr/2023/996)