Cryptography of Blockchain

Abstract

With the development of digital currencies and 5G technology, blockchain has gained widespread attention and is being used in areas such as healthcare, industry and smart vehicles. Many security issues have also been exposed in the course of blockchain applications. Cryptography can ensure the security of data on the blockchain, the integrity and validity of data as well as the ability to authenticate users and anonymize them. This article therefore examines the cryptography underlying blockchain security issues, providing an overview of cryptographic homomorphic encryption, zero-knowledge proofs and secure multi-party computation commonly used in blockchains. At the same time, the development of quantum computing is bound to affect existing cryptographic systems, and blockchains applying these cryptographic systems are bound to be hit hard, so this article discusses four of the most promising post-quantum cryptography techniques available: hash-based public key cryptography, code-based public key cryptography, multivariate public key cryptography, and lattice-based public key cryptography.