SOK: Research Motivations of Public-Key Cryptography

Fuchun Guo; Willy Susilo; Xiaofeng Chen; Peng Jiang; Jianchang Lai; Zhen Zhao

Paper 2023/715

SOK: Research Motivations of Public-Key Cryptography

Fuchun Guo

Willy Susilo

Xiaofeng Chen

Peng Jiang

Jianchang Lai

Zhen Zhao

Abstract

The design, proposal, and analysis of cryptographic primitives and protocols (schemes) are one of the primary research fields in cryptology. To advance this research field, it is crucial to fully understand their research motivations. In this paper, we systematically introduce the research motivations for designing and proposing new schemes in public-key cryptography. We found that all research motivations aim to produce benefits for humanity including efficiency, security, and functionality, although some of them may be not obvious or only hold conditionally. We categorize benefits in research motivations into 3 ways, 6 types, and 17 areas. As examples, we introduce 40 research strategies within these areas for exploring benefits, each presented as ``From less-adj (in the first scheme) To more-adj (in the second scheme)", where ``adj" here refers to an adjective word representing a positive outcome. This SOK paper aims to provide valuable insights into the driving forces behind advancements in public-key cryptography, facilitating future research efforts in this field.

Metadata

Available format(s): PDF
Category: Public-key cryptography
Publication info: Preprint.
Keywords: SOK Research Philosophy Research Motivation Research Strategy
Contact author(s): fuchun @ uow edu au
wsusilo @ uow edu au
xfchen @ xidian edu cn
pengjiang @ bit edu cn
jclai @ seu edu cn
zzhen @ xidian edu cn
History: 2024-04-28: last of 2 revisions; 2023-05-18: received; See all versions
Short URL: https://ia.cr/2023/715
License: CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2023/715,
      author = {Fuchun Guo and Willy Susilo and Xiaofeng Chen and Peng Jiang and Jianchang Lai and Zhen Zhao},
      title = {SOK: Research Motivations of Public-Key Cryptography},
      howpublished = {Cryptology ePrint Archive, Paper 2023/715},
      year = {2023},
      note = {\url{https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/715}},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/715}
}