Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/297435 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
Bank of Canada Staff Working Paper No. 2023-50
Publisher: 
Bank of Canada, Ottawa
Abstract: 
An anonymous credential mechanism is a set of protocols that allows users to obtain credentials from an organization and demonstrate ownership of these credentials without compromising users' privacy. In this work, we construct the first secret-free and quantum-safe credential mechanism. The scheme is secret-free in the sense that an organization does not need to guard a secret key. The scheme is also lightweight in construction. Security of the scheme relies on the ability of the organization to maintain the integrity of a publicly known data structure-namely, a Merkle tree-that utilizes a quantum-safe, partially homomorphic hash function as a foundational primitive. We also construct a simple, quantum-safe, zero-knowledge argument of knowledge of membership in the Merkle tree. Additionally, we explore a concrete instantiation of the scheme and show it to be practically efficient for the core functions of enrollment and verification.
Subjects: 
Central bank research
Digital currencies and fintech
Payment clearing and settlement systems
JEL: 
E
E4
E42
G
G2
G21
O
O3
O31
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.