jonas1312 / merkle-tree

Merkle Tree and Lamport Signature Python Implementation (master's degree short project)

Merkle Tree and Lamport signature Python implementation

Merkle tree

In cryptography and computer science, a hash tree or Merkle tree is a tree in which every non-leaf node is labelled with the hash of the labels or values (in case of leaves) of its child nodes. Hash trees allow efficient and secure verification of the contents of large data structures. Hash trees are a generalization of hash lists and hash chains.

Lamport One-Time Signature Scheme

The Lamport One-Time Signature Scheme (LOTSS) is a signature scheme in which the public key can only be used to sign a single message. The security of the LOTSS is based on cryptographic hash functions. Any secure hash function can be used, which makes this signature scheme very adjustable. If a hash function becomes insecure it can easily be exchanged by another secure hash function. In the following first the key generation, then the signing algorithm and finally the verification algorithm are described.

Requirements

• Python 3
• bitstring

Links

Merkle tree

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkle_signature_scheme
• http://cryptologie.net/article/308/hash-based-signatures-part-iii-many-times-signatures/
• http://blogchaincafe.com/merkle-roots-et-merkle-trees-expliques
• https://www.weusecoins.com/what-is-a-merkle-tree/
• https://brilliant.org/wiki/merkle-tree/

Lamport signature

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamport_signature