Commitment Schemes for Multi-Party Computation

Abstract: The paper presents an analysis of Commitment Schemes (CSs) used in Multi-Party Computation (MPC) protocols. While the individual properties of CSs and the guarantees offered by MPC have been widely studied in isolation, their interrelation in concrete protocols and applications remains mostly underexplored. This paper presents the relation between the two, with an emphasis on (security) properties and their impact on the upper layer MPC. In particular, we investigate how different types of CSs contribute to various MPC constructions and their relation to real-life applications of MPC. The paper can also serve as a tutorial for understanding the cryptographic interplay between CS and MPC, making it accessible to both researchers and practitioners. Our findings emphasize the importance of carefully selecting CS to meet the adversarial and functional requirements of MPC, thereby aiming for more robust and privacy-preserving cryptographic applications