Paper 2024/1766
Critical Rounds in Multi-Round Proofs: Proof of Partial Knowledge and Trapdoor Commitments
, NTT Social Informatics Laboratories, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, LIP6, Paris, France, NICT, Kyoto University, J.P. Morgan AI Research & AlgoCRYPT Center of Excellence, NTT Social Informatics LaboratoriesAbstract
Zero-knowledge simulators, initially developed for proving the security of proof systems, turned out to be also useful in constructing advanced protocols from simple three-move interactive proofs. However, in the context of multi-round public-coin protocols, the interfaces of these auxiliary algorithms become more complex, introducing a range of technical challenges that hinder the generalization of these constructions. We introduce a framework to enhance the usability of zero-knowledge simulators in multi-round argument systems for protocol designs. Critical-round zero-knowledge relies on the ability to perform complete zero-knowledge simulations by knowing the challenge of just one specific round in advance. We show that these notions are satisfied by diverse protocols based on MPC-in-the-Head, interactive oracle proofs, and split-and-fold arguments. We demonstrate the usefulness of the critical round framework by constructing proofs of partial knowledge (Cramer, Damgård, and Schoenmakers, CRYPTO’94) and trapdoor commitments (Damgård, CRYPTO’89) from critical-round multi-round proofs.
Metadata
- Available format(s)
-
PDF
- Category
- Public-key cryptography
- Publication info
- A major revision of an IACR publication in EUROCRYPT 2026
- Keywords
- Multi-Round ProofsCritical RoundCompositionProofs of Partial KnowledgeTrapdoor Commitment
- Contact author(s)
-
abe masayuki @ iecl ntt co jp
david balbas @ imdea org
dung bui @ lip6 fr
m ohkubo @ nict go jp
shang zehua 23m @ st kyoto-u ac jp
takahashi akira 58s @ gmail com
mehdi tibouchi @ ntt com - History
- 2026-02-23: last of 5 revisions
- 2024-10-30: received
- See all versions
- Short URL
- https://ia.cr/2024/1766
- License
-
CC BY
BibTeX
@misc{cryptoeprint:2024/1766,
author = {Masayuki Abe and David Balbás and Dung Bui and Miyako Ohkubo and Zehua Shang and Akira Takahashi and Mehdi Tibouchi},
title = {Critical Rounds in Multi-Round Proofs: Proof of Partial Knowledge and Trapdoor Commitments},
howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2024/1766},
year = {2024},
url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2024/1766}
}
