Threshold Cryptography: Insights Beyond the NIST Threshold Call (C13b)
This talk will give an update and synthesize expectations about the process that follows the NIST Threshold Call (IR 8214C). After two public drafts, the call recently developed into its final version. The process that ensues will build a public body of reference materials on diverse items of advanced cryptography, with a focus on threshold schemes. These allow for distribution of trust, by securely distributing across multiple parties the keys that are needed for diverse operations, such as signatures and decryption, without ever reconstructing the keys. The recent NIST Workshop on Multi-Party Threshold Schemes (MPTS 2026) has already hosted a number of “preview” presentations about upcoming public submisssions. Each submission will include a technical specification, an open-source reference implementation, and a report on experimental evaluation, about one or more crypto-systems. Besides threshold schemes, the wide scope also includes zero-knowledge proofs, fully-homomorphic encryption, and auxiliary cryptographic gadgets. The scope covers both quantum-resistant and quantum-vulnerable techniques.