Glowing Hot Topics in Cryptography (GHTC) 2024: Has academic Cryptography over-promised and under delivered?
About us
In Glowing Hot Topics in Cryptography (GHTC) series of workshops consists of a one-day round table event discussing some of the hottest topics in cryptography. The round tables will feature world renown panelist from both industry and academy. GHTC aims to provide a forum for exchanging ideas, research, and insights on hot topics in cryptography. This event is focused on a single cryptographic hot topic, for people to gather and exchange ideas about it. This event also aims to focus on being an opportunity for people to mingle, exchange ideas in closer groups, and establish and strengthen working relationships.
The third edition of GHTC, a workshop series dedicated to exploring cutting-edge cryptographic topics, will delve into the provocative theme: "Has Academic Cryptography Over-Promised and Under-Delivered?" This year, we aim to scrutinize cryptographic applications that were once met with great enthusiasm but whose real-world impact remains under development. Specifically, we will investigate the long-term viability of these cryptographic applications: Can they withstand the test of time?
Program Organizers
Date And Place
Saturday,
August 17, 2024
Attendance
The event will be hybrid so that attendees, panelists, and moderators can attend GHTC 2024 in person or remotely.
Registrations
The workshop is an affiliated event of WWW.CRYPTO2024.COM.
To register to the workshop, please register to CRYPTO 2024, and mark in the registration form the GHTC workshop.
Please read the participation guidelines.
| Time | Activity | Place |
|---|---|---|
| 9:00AM - 9:15AM | Introductory Remarks | Corwin West |
| 9:15AM - 10:15AM | RoundTable 1: “What’s going on with Crypto-currencies, Blockchain, NFTs, and Web 3.” |
Corwin West |
| 10:15AM - 10:45AM | Coffee Break | Lagoon Plaza |
| 10:50AM - 12:05PM | RoundTable 2: “How to get ready for a post-quantum world” |
Corwin West |
| 12:10PM - 2:00PM | Lunch Break | De La Guerra Commons |
| 2:10PM - 3:10PM | RoundTable 3: “The Future of Privacy: Are FHE, MPC, and Functional Encryption the Solution?” |
Corwin West |
| 3:15PM - 3:50PM | Coffee break | Lagoon Plaza |
| 3:50PM - 5:00PM | RoundTable 4: “How to improve our peer review and revision system” |
Corwin West |
Program
Title
“What’s going on with Crypto-currencies, Blockchain, NFTs, and Web 3”
Abstract
In this panel we will debate about the following technologies:
- 1. Cryptocurrencies: It has been claimed that cryptocurrencies have the potential to revolutionize the financial industry by providing alternatives to traditional banking systems, enabling faster and cheaper cross-border transactions, and fostering financial inclusion for the unbanked population.
- 2. Blockchain Technology: It has been claimed that blockchain technology offers numerous potential applications beyond cryptocurrencies, including supply chain management, healthcare, voting systems, identity verification, and digital rights management.
- 3. NFTs: NFTs have emerged as a new form of digital ownership and expression, enabling creators to tokenize and monetize digital assets such as artwork, collectibles, music, and virtual real estate. It has been claimed that they offer opportunities for artists, content creators, and investors to participate in the digital economy and monetize their creations.
- 4. Web 3.0: Web 3.0 promises to create a more decentralized, secure, and user-centric internet by leveraging blockchain technology and decentralized protocols. It has been claimed that Web 3.0 will give users more control over their data, privacy, and online interactions.
One fundamental question, however, revolves around the prospect of widespread adoption and long -term viability for the aforementioned technologies. Equally crucial is whether we have a sufficient number of use cases that effectively demonstrate the value and practical applications of these technologies.
Panelists
Michael Abdalla
Nexus
Ben Lynn
Dfinity
Zhenfei Zhang
Ethereum FoundationModerator
Michael Scott
Title
“How to get ready for a post-quantum world”
Abstract
This panel will debate the long-term viability of the new NIST standards against both classical and quantum adversaries. Our expert panelists will discuss about the level of confidence we can place in the security guarantees offered by the upcoming post-quantum schemes.
Panelists
Sofia Celi
Brave
Andreas Hülsing
Eindhoven University
Brian Lamacchia
IACR
Víctor Mateu
TIIModerator
Francisco Rodríguez-Henríquez
Title
“The Future of Privacy: Are FHE, MPC, and Differential Privacy the Solution?”
Abstract
Over the past decade, confidential computing has seen significant advancements, leveraging techniques like multi-party computation (MPC), fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), and functional encryption (FE). Despite this progress, the widespread adoption of FHE, MPC, and FE in real-world applications remains limited. Challenges such as efficiency bottlenecks and the reliance on hardware acceleration hinder the practicality of FHE, while its passive security trust model presents further obstacles. Similarly, FE-based schemes, including Searchable Encryption, have yet to achieve broad adoption. Although MPC has found niche applications, its bandwidth requirements and limitations in providing a universal solution for diverse scenarios has limited its adoption. Emerging techniques like function secret sharing (FSS) aim to address bandwidth concerns but face practicality issues. Can we consider FHE, MPC or FE mature and practical? Will these techniques provide general solutions for confidential computing in the future, or will the market focus on more efficient techniques based on Differential Privacy (DP) or Hardware Secure Modules (HSM)?
Panelists
Jung Hee Cheon
Seoul National University
Emiliano de Cristofaro
University of California, Riverside
Christopher Patton
CloudflareModerator
Abdelrahaman Aly
Title
“How to improve our peer review and revision system”
Abstract
This round table will be held in collaboration with CFAIL. Here we will debate about the pros and cons that the current peer-to-peer revision system for cryptographic papers has. We will also delve into the different options that we have for dealing with the scalability issues that we are facing with our cryptographic conferences and the different solutions that are being currently discussed.
Panelists
Allison Bishop
Proof Trading
Andreas Hülsing
Eindhoven University
Gaëtan Leurent
Inria
Kevin S. McCurley
IACR
