Cryptology ePrint Archive: Report 2020/107

One-shot Signatures and Applications to Hybrid Quantum/Classical Authentication

Ryan Amos and Marios Georgiou and Aggelos Kiayias and Mark Zhandry

Abstract: We define the notion of one-shot signatures, which are signatures where any secret key can be used to sign only a single message, and then self-destructs. While such signatures are of course impossible classically, we construct one-shot signatures using quantum no-cloning. In particular, we show that such signatures exist relative to a classical oracle, which we can then heuristically obfuscate using known indistinguishability obfuscation schemes.

We show that one-shot signatures have numerous applications for hybrid quantum/classical cryptographic tasks, where all communication is required to be classical, but local quantum operations are allowed. Applications include one-time signature tokens, quantum money with classical communication, decentralized blockchain-less cryptocurrency, signature schemes with unclonable secret keys, non-interactive certifiable min-entropy, and more. We thus position one-shot signatures as a powerful new building block for novel quantum cryptographic protocols.

Category / Keywords: foundations / quantum cryptography, digital signatures, cryptocurrencies

Date: received 3 Feb 2020, last revised 3 Feb 2020

Contact author: rbamos at cs princeton edu, mgeorgiou at gradcenter cuny edu, akiayias at inf ed ac uk, mzhandry at princeton edu

Available format(s): PDF | BibTeX Citation

Note: Added an extra section (6.2) on key evolving signatures

Version: 20200204:161802 (All versions of this report)

Short URL: ia.cr/2020/107