Paper 2019/635

Homomorphic Time-Lock Puzzles and Applications

Giulio Malavolta and Sri Aravinda Krishnan Thyagarajan

Abstract

Time-lock puzzles allow one to encrypt messages for the future, by efficiently generating a puzzle with a solution $s$ that remains hidden until time $T$ has elapsed. The solution is required to be concealed from the eyes of any algorithm running in (parallel) time less than $T$. We put forth the concept of \emph{homomorphic time-lock puzzles}, where one can evaluate functions over puzzles without solving them, i.e., one can manipulate a set of puzzles with solutions $(s_1,\dots ,s_n)$ to obtain a puzzle that solves to $f(s_1,\dots ,s_n)$, for any function $f$. We propose candidate constructions under concrete cryptographic assumptions for different classes of functions. Then we show how homomorphic time-lock puzzles overcome the limitations of classical time-lock puzzles by proposing new protocols for applications of interest, such as e-voting, multi-party coin flipping, and fair contract signing.

Note: Full version of the work.