This is the NIST Threshold Call, calling for public submissions of multi-party threshold schemes, and other related crypto-systems, to support the United States' National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in gathering a public body of reference materials on advanced cryptography. In a threshold scheme, a reference cryptographic primitive (e.g., signing, encryption, decryption, key generation) is computed in a distributed manner, while its private/secret key is or becomes secret-shared across various parties. The threshold schemes submitted in reply to this call will be interchangeable with a reference non-threshold primitive of interest, in the sense that their outputs can be used interchangeably in a subsequent operation. The primitives of interest are organized into various categories, across two classes: Class N, for selected NIST-specified primitives; and Class S, for special primitives that are not specified by NIST but are threshold-friendly or have useful functional features. The scope of Class S also includes fully-homomorphic encryption, zero-knowledge proofs, and auxiliary gadgets. This document specifies submission phases and the requirements for submitting a package, including a technical specification, a reference implementation, and a report on experimental evaluation. A subsequent phase of public analysis will support the elaboration of a characterization report, which may help assess new interests beyond the cryptographic techniques currently standardized by NIST, and may include recommendations for future processes.
This is the NIST Threshold Call, calling for public submissions of multi-party threshold schemes, and other related crypto-systems, to support the United States' National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in gathering a public body of reference materials on advanced cryptography. In a...
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This is the NIST Threshold Call, calling for public submissions of multi-party threshold schemes, and other related crypto-systems, to support the United States' National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in gathering a public body of reference materials on advanced cryptography. In a threshold scheme, a reference cryptographic primitive (e.g., signing, encryption, decryption, key generation) is computed in a distributed manner, while its private/secret key is or becomes secret-shared across various parties. The threshold schemes submitted in reply to this call will be interchangeable with a reference non-threshold primitive of interest, in the sense that their outputs can be used interchangeably in a subsequent operation. The primitives of interest are organized into various categories, across two classes: Class N, for selected NIST-specified primitives; and Class S, for special primitives that are not specified by NIST but are threshold-friendly or have useful functional features. The scope of Class S also includes fully-homomorphic encryption, zero-knowledge proofs, and auxiliary gadgets. This document specifies submission phases and the requirements for submitting a package, including a technical specification, a reference implementation, and a report on experimental evaluation. A subsequent phase of public analysis will support the elaboration of a characterization report, which may help assess new interests beyond the cryptographic techniques currently standardized by NIST, and may include recommendations for future processes.
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