6533b827fe1ef96bd1285a8d

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Improved Magic Ink Signatures Using Hints

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description

We introduce two improvements to the recently proposed so called magic ink DSS signatures. A first improvement is that we reduce the overhead for tracing without noticeably increasing any other cost. The tracing cost is linear in the number of generated signatures in the original proposal; our improved version reduces this to a logarithmic cost in the common case. A second improvement is that we introduce a method for determining whether forged currency is in circulation, without affecting the privacy of honest users. Our improvements rely on our introducing a so called hint value. This is an encryption of the signature transcript received, submitted by the signature receiver. Part of the processing of this hint value is done using a new technique in which the high costs of secret sharing and robust computation on shared data are avoided by manipulation of encrypted data rather than plaintext. (Whereas the idea of computing on encrypted data is not a new notion in itself, it has to the best of our knowledge not previously been employed to limit the use of costly secret sharing based protocols.).