Cryptography Jargon Explained

Cryptography Jargon Explained Author writes... Translation Input string public variables Witness string private variables Common reference string 3rd-party dependencies Structured reference string 3rd-party dependencies with terms and conditions Polynomial Array Reed-Solomon error-correcting code Fancy array Non-systematic error-correcting code Extremely fancy array n-dimensional boolean hypercube “Array”, by H.P. Lovecraft Multiplicative subgroup H of order n for (let i = 0; i < n; i++){ ... } Hadamard product of a⃗ ∘ b⃗ a[i] * b[i] Inner-product of A(X), B(X) result += a[i] * b[i] Polynomial identity testing assert(a[i] * b[i] + c[i] == 0) “without loss of generality” The next section is super hand-wavy “X is folklore” Author could not find a reference for X “X is trivial” X is not trivial “The proof is trivial and left as an exercise to the reader” Author is a sadist

A two-column table humorously translates intimidating cryptography terminology into simpler or more alarming meanings. The joke is that advanced mathematical phrases often conceal ordinary programming concepts, missing references, hand-waving, or an impossibly difficult proof. It is shared as a reaction to dense technical writing and papers that casually call hard steps “trivial.”

• @profunctor_io / 7338 2021-10-26
• @dev_meme / 3985 2021-11-29