2,690 research outputs found
Unconditionally Secure Bit Commitment
We describe a new classical bit commitment protocol based on cryptographic
constraints imposed by special relativity. The protocol is unconditionally
secure against classical or quantum attacks. It evades the no-go results of
Mayers, Lo and Chau by requiring from Alice a sequence of communications,
including a post-revelation verification, each of which is guaranteed to be
independent of its predecessor.Comment: Typos corrected. Reference details added. To appear in Phys. Rev.
Let
Device-Independent Relativistic Quantum Bit Commitment
We examine the possibility of device-independent relativistic quantum bit
commitment. We note the potential threat of {\it location attacks}, in which
the behaviour of untrusted devices used in relativistic quantum cryptography
depends on their space-time location. We describe relativistic quantum bit
commitment schemes that are immune to these attacks, and show that these
schemes offer device-independent security against hypothetical post-quantum
adversaries subject only to the no-signalling principle. We compare a
relativistic classical bit commitment scheme with similar features, and note
some possible advantages of the quantum schemes
No Superluminal Signaling Implies Unconditionally Secure Bit Commitment
Bit commitment (BC) is an important cryptographic primitive for an agent to
convince a mutually mistrustful party that she has already made a binding
choice of 0 or 1 but only to reveal her choice at a later time. Ideally, a BC
protocol should be simple, reliable, easy to implement using existing
technologies, and most importantly unconditionally secure in the sense that its
security is based on an information-theoretic proof rather than computational
complexity assumption or the existence of a trustworthy arbitrator. Here we
report such a provably secure scheme involving only one-way classical
communications whose unconditional security is based on no superluminal
signaling (NSS). Our scheme is inspired by the earlier works by Kent, who
proposed two impractical relativistic protocols whose unconditional securities
are yet to be established as well as several provably unconditionally secure
protocols which rely on both quantum mechanics and NSS. Our scheme is
conceptually simple and shows for the first time that quantum communication is
not needed to achieve unconditional security for BC. Moreover, with purely
classical communications, our scheme is practical and easy to implement with
existing telecom technologies. This completes the cycle of study of
unconditionally secure bit commitment based on known physical laws.Comment: This paper has been withdrawn by the authors due to a crucial
oversight on an earlier work by A. Ken
Secure bit commitment from relativistic constraints
We investigate two-party cryptographic protocols that are secure under
assumptions motivated by physics, namely relativistic assumptions
(no-signalling) and quantum mechanics. In particular, we discuss the security
of bit commitment in so-called split models, i.e. models in which at least some
of the parties are not allowed to communicate during certain phases of the
protocol. We find the minimal splits that are necessary to evade the
Mayers-Lo-Chau no-go argument and present protocols that achieve security in
these split models. Furthermore, we introduce the notion of local versus global
command, a subtle issue that arises when the split committer is required to
delegate non-communicating agents to open the commitment. We argue that
classical protocols are insecure under global command in the split model we
consider. On the other hand, we provide a rigorous security proof in the global
command model for Kent's quantum protocol [Kent 2011, Unconditionally Secure
Bit Commitment by Transmitting Measurement Outcomes]. The proof employs two
fundamental principles of modern physics, the no-signalling property of
relativity and the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics.Comment: published version, IEEE format, 18 pages, 8 figure
The cryptographic power of misaligned reference frames
Suppose that Alice and Bob define their coordinate axes differently, and the
change of reference frame between them is given by a probability distribution
mu over SO(3). We show that this uncertainty of reference frame is of no use
for bit commitment when mu is uniformly distributed over a (sub)group of SO(3),
but other choices of mu can give rise to a partially or even asymptotically
secure bit commitment.Comment: 4 pages Latex; v2 has a new referenc
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