Bachelor / Master Thesis
Practical multiparty computation
Multiparty Computation (MPC) enables a group of participants, who do not necessarily trust each other, to jointly perform a computation. The concept was introduced decades ago [1]. The participants agree on a function to compute. Each participant holds an input to that function. Using an MPC protocol they compute the output of the function on their secret inputs without revealing them.
Blockchains, on the other hand, serve nowadays as a distributed and decentralized framework, on which applications are being developed. These applications utilize the blockchain as the communication primitive and/or as a trusted party. In practice nowadays MPC protocols use blockchains as an “orchestrator”; the blockchain is, for example, responsible for initiating the computation.
Even though the combination of MPC and blockchains is well understood and used in practice, there do exist open questions in practice, especially with regard to the so-called “offline” phase of an MPC protocol. This phase is called “offline” because it is independent of the function to be computed. It basically generates the randomness that is needed for the actual MPC computation and is run in parallel with it.
In this project we will engineer practical solutions for the aforementioned setting. We will first explore current solutions and then experiment with new ideas.
References
[1] Protocols for Secure Computations