Open-source hardware for embedded security

Geoffrey Ottoy, Bart Preneel, Jean-Pierre Goemaere, Nobby Stevens, and Lieven De Strycker
EDN (February 4, 2013)

Imagine you’re waiting in line, queuing to enter a major event. The ticket you have bought online is stored on your smart phone. As you swipe your phone over some designated area, an NFC connection is set up, your ticket is validated and the gates open to let you in. And the good thing is, that it all happened anonymously.

In this kind of applications, your anonymity can be guaranteed by the use of recently developed anonymous credentials protocols like Idemix (IBM) or U-Prove (Microsoft). These protocols rely on Zero-Knowledge Proofs-of-Knowledge (ZKPK); you prove that you have knowledge of a certain attribute without revealing its value. The attribute is bound to a public key in a so-called commitment.

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