Secure Application Development
Home faculty program location registration subscribe related past events	Anonymous credentials Learning objectives Understand the function of minimum disclosure credentials. Illustration of the basics of zero-knowledge proofs. In depth understanding of the showing and issuing protocols of a simple credential scheme. Overview Credentials are tokens issued by some authority to prove to third parties that a subject has some attributes. These constructions are ubiquitous: e-passports, train tickets and even cash can be thought of as credentials. Yet showing traditional credentials often leaks more information than necessary about the subject. Minimum disclosure, or anonymous, credentials use modern cryptography to limit the information disclosed to the minimum required to perform a protocol, and provide privacy even if the issuer and the verifier of the credentials collaborate to uncover the subject. As a result of these properties anonymous credentials are fundamental building blocks of privacy technologies. In this lecture we will present their high-level properties and the basic families of credentials that have been developed over the last ten years. Then we will dive into the technical details of how they work, by providing a gentle introduction to zero-knowledge proofs, that are a fundamental part of modern cryptography. From there we will show how to build a simple anonymous credentials scheme and go into the details of the showing and issuing protocols.

Secure Application Development

Anonymous credentials

Learning objectives

Understand the function of minimum disclosure credentials.
Illustration of the basics of zero-knowledge proofs.
In depth understanding of the showing and issuing protocols of a simple credential scheme.

Overview

Credentials are tokens issued by some authority to prove to third parties that a subject has some attributes. These constructions are ubiquitous: e-passports, train tickets and even cash can be thought of as credentials. Yet showing traditional credentials often leaks more information than necessary about the subject. Minimum disclosure, or anonymous, credentials use modern cryptography to limit the information disclosed to the minimum required to perform a protocol, and provide privacy even if the issuer and the verifier of the credentials collaborate to uncover the subject. As a result of these properties anonymous credentials are fundamental building blocks of privacy technologies.

In this lecture we will present their high-level properties and the basic families of credentials that have been developed over the last ten years. Then we will dive into the technical details of how they work, by providing a gentle introduction to zero-knowledge proofs, that are a fundamental part of modern cryptography. From there we will show how to build a simple anonymous credentials scheme and go into the details of the showing and issuing protocols.