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Elizabeth C. Crites

elizabeth@web3.foundation

I am a Research Scientist in Cryptography at Web3 Foundation. Currently, my main area of research is threshold cryptography. My contributions in this area include the development of novel multi-signature and threshold signature schemes, such as Sparkle (CRYPTO’23, Best Early Career Paper Award), Snowblind (CRYPTO’23), FROST2 (CRYPTO’22), TSPS (ASIACRYPT'23), and SpeedyMuSig (an optimized version of MuSig2). Multi-party signatures are used in blockchains in myriad ways. They are also the subject of an upcoming call from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). I am a team member submitting FROST.

I work on protocol design and provable security for core cryptographic primitives in Polkadot. Currently, my work focuses on verifiable random functions (VRFs) with advanced functionalities, which are implemented in leader election protocols and in the distributed generation of public randomness.

Short Bio. I hold a PhD in Mathematics from Brown University, a master's degree in Applied Mathematics from Columbia University and a bachelor's degree in Honours Mathematics from The University of Western Ontario.

Selected Publications

  • Fully Adaptive Schnorr Threshold Signatures. Elizabeth Crites, Chelsea Komlo, and Mary Maller. CRYPTO 2023. Best Early Career Paper Award. First fully adaptive security proof for a Schnorr threshold signature scheme. https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/445

  • Snowblind: A Threshold Blind Signature in Pairing-Free Groups. Elizabeth Crites, Chelsea Komlo, Mary Maller, Stefano Tessaro, and Chenzhi Zhu. CRYPTO 2023. First threshold blind signature scheme in pairing-free groups. https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/1228

  • Threshold Structure-Preserving Signatures. Elizabeth Crites, Markulf Kohlweiss, Bart Preneel, Mahdi Sedaghat, and Daniel Slamanig. ASIACRYPT 2023. First threshold structure-preserving signature scheme. https://eprint.iacr.org/2022/839

  • Better than Advertised Security for Non-Interactive Threshold Signatures. Mihir Bellare, Elizabeth Crites, Chelsea Komlo, Mary Maller, Stefano Tessaro, and Chenzhi Zhu. CRYPTO 2022. Security analysis for the FROST and BLS threshold signature schemes. https://crypto.iacr.org/2022/papers/538806_1_En_18_Chapter_OnlinePDF.pdf