Meet Our Researcher and Technical Advisor Dr Khoa Nguyen

We are elated to announce that Dr Khoa Nguyen has joined Abelian’s growing team of advisors. Dr Nguyen will be one of the key technical advisors and scholars joining force with Huaxiong Wang, Zhen Liu and Guomin Yang. Dr Nguyen is a well-established cryptographer specializing in post-quantum cryptography, in particular, the design and analysis of lattice-based cryptographic algorithms that will serve as the main technical building blocks of ABE.

The Journey to Blockchain

Dr Nguyen started his journey on cryptography when he was doing his PhD studies back in 2009. Since then he has been fascinated by the mathematical beauty and the elegancy of cryptographic protocols. In the past decade, Dr Nguyen published quite a number of research results on reputable international academic conferences including Crypto, Eurocrypt, Asiacrypt, PKC, and more.

When Bitcoin came to the market, its mechanisms and the applications of Blockchain technology immediately drew the attention from this cryptographic scholar. “These brand-new (cryptocurrency) platforms, for the first time ever, make it possible to build efficient cryptosystems with abounding practically desirable features: transparency, anonymity, accountability, and long-term security.”

Joining the Abelian Family

Sharing his insights over joining the Abelian project, Dr Nguyen “The appealing potentials of Abelian, to provide a post-quantum cryptocurrency platform with a reasonable balance between privacy and accountability, has impressed me.” He believes this balance yields a fair setting for both users and authorities, ensuring the incentives and guaranteeing the security of everyone in the long-term future. “I therefore think that Abelian will have high impact to the world, and our design philosophy will be widely adopted.”

Further Dr Nguyen adds that, “It is a moment of great pride that I will be joining Abelian, where my theoretical research in privacy-preserving post-quantum cryptography can be brought to practice and benefit the community.”

Stunning Cryptographic Academic Background

Dr Nguyen received his PhD degree in cryptography in 2014, at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. He is currently a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at NTU. His research interests are in the area of post-quantum cryptography, especially the design and analysis of privacy-preserving cryptographic protocols from lattices and codes.

He has published 25 papers, 15 of which are at important conferences in cryptography and security, including EUROCRYPT, CRYPTO, ASIACRYPT, PKC, ACNS and EuroS&P. He co-authored the first lattice-based anonymous electronic cash system, which was presented at ASIACRYPT 2017.

Dr Nguyen has been co-supervising 4 PhD students and serving in the Program Committees of more than 10 international conferences in cryptography and security, including ASIACRYPT 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Dr Nguyen is also a history book lover and an active amateur tennis player, winning tournaments in singles and doubles.

Abelian is honored and grateful to have Dr Nguyen and his services on board. With Dr Nguyen’s joining, Team Abelian feels excited and ready to accelerate the momentum for the upcoming Testnet release.