CW21 Technical Workshop Series: Hash-based Cryptography and SPHINCS+

Date and time: Tuesday, July 7, 1:00 pm - 4:15 pm

Location: QNC 1201, Mike & Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre, University of Waterloo

RSVP: Please fill out the registration form by Tuesday, July 3, 2026

Light refreshments will be provided.

Abstract:

This session will start with some motivation on why hash-based cryptography could be useful: why do people still care about it, when it is bigger and slower than lattice-based cryptography? I will then introduce the main families of one-time hash-based digital signatures: Lamport, WOTS, and FORS. Then we will discuss how to lift these into a stateful many-time signature with a Merkle tree, and then Goldreich’s method to create a stateless many-time signature. Finally, we will combine all of these ingredients to create the NIST standard SLH-DSA, also known as SPHINCS+. 

Bio:

Please click on Sam Jaques for his biography.