Unconditional Proofs-of-Work and Other Possibilities of Thermodynamic Cryptography

TL;DR

This paper explores cryptographic protocols based on physical laws and limited free energy, enabling secure tasks like proofs-of-work and secret sharing without relying on quantum mechanics.

Contribution

It introduces a framework for thermodynamic cryptography using physical principles and limited free energy, extending cryptographic functionalities beyond traditional models.

Findings

Protocols for unconditional proofs-of-thermodynamical-work

Secret sharing of free energy established

Unforgeable money and proofs-of-position demonstrated

Abstract

In line with advances in recent years about realizing cryptographic functionalities in an information-theoretically secure way from physical phenomena and laws, we propose here to obtain useful tasks from the sole assumption of limited free energy. Specifically, based on that assumption -- resulting in a setting loosely related to Maurer's bounded-storage model -- we derive protocols for unconditional proofs-of-thermodynamical-work, secret sharing of free energy, unforgeable money, and proofs-of-position. While our schemes can be considered classical and not quantum per se, they are resistant against both classes of adversaries.