Paper 2025/1680

ChipmunkRing: A Practical Post-Quantum Ring Signature Scheme for Blockchain Applications

Abstract

We introduce ChipmunkRing, a practical post-quantum ring signature construction tailored for blockchain environments. Building on our Chipmunk lattice-based cryptographic framework, this implementation delivers compact digital signatures ranging from 20.5 to 279.7KB, with rapid signing operations completing in 1.1-15.1ms and efficient validation processes requiring only 0.4-4.5ms for participant groups of 2-64 members. The cornerstone of our approach is Acorn Verification—a streamlined zero-knowledge protocol that supersedes the classical Fiat-Shamir methodology. This innovation enables linear O(n) authentication complexity using concise 96-byte cryptographic proofs per participant, yielding a remarkable 17.7× performance enhancement for 32-member rings when compared to conventional techniques. Our work includes preliminary security estimates indicating approximately 112-bit security against known quantum algorithms (NIST Level 5, see Section~\ref{sec:quantum-security}), extensive computational benchmarking, and comprehensive support for both standard anonymity sets and collaborative threshold constructions with flexible participation requirements.