About

History

The Cryptology ePrint Archive was preceded by the Theory of Cryptography Library. Founded in 1996 by Oded Goldreich, the Theory of Cryptography Library was hosted by the Theory of Computation Group at the Laboratory for Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

In the fall of 1998, the Theory of Cryptography Library moved to the University of California at San Diego (UCSD), with the Cryptography and Security Group at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. When the library moved to UCSD, Mihir Bellare and Bennet Yee took over as editors. During this time, a mirror site was available in Israel and maintained by Michael Ben-Or.

In August 1999, Christian Cachin and Eli Biham brought a proposal before the IACR Board of Directors to establish a cryptology pre-print server. Support for the idea was unanimous. The Cryptology ePrint Archive debuted in the fall of 1999. By May 2000, the Archive had 20 papers, with numbers increasing to 50 in August.

Bellare and Yee helped facilitate transfer of papers from the old Theory of Cryptography Library to the new Cryptology ePrint Archive. In 2000, roles had shifted slightly, with Bellare serving as editor and Cachin managing maintenance of the Archive. In 2001, Bellare, Cachin, and Yee were working together to maintain the site. Yee later dropped out.

In the first five years of existence, the Cryptology ePrint Archive had collected just under 1,500 papers. By the ten year mark, that had more than doubled. The archive surpassed 10,000 papers in 2016. By the end of its twentieth year, the Cryptology ePrint Archive held over 15,000 papers and continues to grow.