poqeth: Efficient, post-quantum signature verification on Ethereum

Ruslan Kysil; István András Seres; Péter Kutas; Nándor Kelecsényi

Paper 2025/091

poqeth: Efficient, post-quantum signature verification on Ethereum

Ruslan Kysil, Eötvös Loránd University

István András Seres

, Eötvös Loránd University

Péter Kutas, Eötvös Loránd University, University of Birmingham

Nándor Kelecsényi, Eötvös Loránd University

Abstract

This work explores the application and efficient deployment of (standardized) post-quantum (PQ) digital signature algorithms in the blockchain environment. Specifically, we implement and evaluate four PQ signatures in the Ethereum Virtual Machine: W-OTS$^{+}$, XMSS, SPHINCS+, and MAYO. We focus on optimizing the gas costs of the verification algorithms as that is the signature schemes' only algorithm executed on-chain, thus incurring financial costs (transaction fees) for the users. Hence, the verification algorithm is the signature schemes' main bottleneck for decentralized applications. We examine two methods to verify post-quantum digital signatures on-chain. Our practical performance evaluation shows that full on-chain verification is often prohibitively costly. Naysayer proofs (FC'24) allow a novel optimistic verification mode. We observe that the Naysayer verification mode is generally the cheapest, at the cost of additional trust assumptions. We release our implementation called poqeth as an open-source library.

Note: Preprint.

Metadata

Available format(s): PDF
Category: Implementation
Publication info: Preprint.
Keywords: Post-Quantum digital signatures Ethereum hash-based cryptography multivariate quadratic cryptography
Contact author(s): ruslan ilesik @ gmail com
seresistvanandras @ gmail com
kutasp @ gmail com
kelecsenyi @ protonmail com
History: 2025-01-22: approved; 2025-01-21: received; See all versions
Short URL: https://ia.cr/2025/091
License: CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2025/091,
      author = {Ruslan Kysil and István András Seres and Péter Kutas and Nándor Kelecsényi},
      title = {poqeth: Efficient, post-quantum signature verification on Ethereum},
      howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2025/091},
      year = {2025},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/091}
}