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Projects PQC Digital Signature Schemes

Post-Quantum Cryptography: Digital Signature Schemes

Standardization of Additional Digital Signature Schemes

Call for Additional Digital Signature Schemes for the
Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization Process (PDF)
Closed June 1, 2023

NIST announced that the PQC standardization process is continuing with a fourth round, with the following KEMs still under consideration: BIKE, Classic McEliece, HQC, and SIKE. However, there are no remaining digital signature candidates under consideration. As such, NIST is calling for additional digital signature proposals to be considered in the PQC standardization process.


NIST is primarily interested in additional general-purpose signature schemes that are not based on structured lattices. For certain applications, such as certificate transparency, NIST may also be interested in signature schemes that have short signatures and fast verification. NIST is open to receiving additional submissions based on structured lattices, but is intent on diversifying the post-quantum signature standards. As such, any structured lattice-based signature proposal would need to significantly outperform CRYSTALS-Dilithium and FALCON in relevant applications and/or ensure substantial additional security properties to be considered for standardization.

Contacts

PQC Crypto Technical Inquiries
pqc-comments@nist.gov

Dr. Lily Chen

Dr. Dustin Moody

Dr. Yi-Kai Liu

Topics

Security and Privacy: digital signatures, post-quantum cryptography

Created August 29, 2022, Updated February 22, 2024