The Times They Are A-Changing: Post Quantum Cryptography Brings Rings and Fully Homomorphic Encryption
Just imagine, a future where all our data is encrypted, and where we can still process it. Seems like science fiction, but it is not.
Basically, over the next decade or so, we will say goodbye to our “flawed” public key methods of RSA and ECC (Elliptic Curve Cryptography), and say hello to methods that are provably hard, such as those based on lattices and learning with errors (LWE). Overall, RSA and ECC have done us well, and have allowed us to build with PKI and with blockchains, but they are at risk from quantum computers.
Introduction
Our existing public key methods have allowed us to build a more trusted Internet and create blockchain-based methods, but they are flawed. For one, they can be cracked by quantum computers, and for two, they did not implement full homomorphic encryption. But, things are changing, and the usage of lattice methods will scale public key methods into full homomorphic encryption. One of these methods is BFV (Brakerski/Fan-Vercauteren):
