MATH 343, FINAL PAPER
ANDREW J. BLUMBERG
1. Overview
The final paper is an exposition of some cryptographic protocol (broadly construed), construction, or concept that we have not covered in class. You should
specify what problem is being solved, what the protocol is in enough detail for a
moderately skilled reader to implement it, any mathematical background, why the
protocol achieves whatever security properties you claim, and perhaps some discussion of other solutions or properties that are not obtained but might be desirable.
There is no length requirement, but I am personally skeptical that you could
write a reasonable paper that was shorter than about five pages. Please check
with me as you write it if you are uncertain about the level of detail. But broadly
speaking, when I read it, I should be convinced that you understood the subject of
the paper in a good way.
Here are some potential paper topics — you’ll have to find references for these,
which is something that I can help you with if google does not avail. Also, I’m
happy for you to work on something else that seems appealing to you.
(1) Electronic cash.
(2) Homomorphic encryption schemes.
(3) Electronic voting protocols.
(4) Secure two-party protocols.
(5) Zero-knowledge protocols.
(6) Quantum computing and factoring,
(7) Secret sharing.
(8) Pairing-based protocols.
(9) Pseudo-random function families.
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