Barriers for succinct arguments in the random oracle model

Alessandro Chiesa, Eylon Yogev

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

We establish barriers on the efficiency of succinct arguments in the random oracle model. We give evidence that, under standard complexity assumptions, there do not exist succinct arguments where the argument verifier makes a small number of queries to the random oracle. The new barriers follow from new insights into how probabilistic proofs play a fundamental role in constructing succinct arguments in the random oracle model. IOPs are necessary for succinctness. We prove that any succinct argument in the random oracle model can be transformed into a corresponding interactive oracle proof (IOP). The query complexity of the IOP is related to the succinctness of the argument.Algorithms for IOPs. We prove that if a language has an IOP with good soundness relative to query complexity, then it can be decided via a fast algorithm with small space complexity. By combining these results we obtain barriers for a large class of deterministic and non-deterministic languages. For example, a succinct argument for 3 SAT with few verifier queries implies an IOP with good parameters, which in turn implies a fast algorithm for 3 SAT that contradicts the Exponential-Time Hypothesis. We additionally present results that shed light on the necessity of several features of probabilistic proofs that are typically used to construct succinct arguments, such as holography and state restoration soundness. Our results collectively provide an explanation for “why” known constructions of succinct arguments have a certain structure.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationTheory of Cryptography - 18th International Conference, TCC 2020, Proceedings
EditorsRafael Pass, Krzysztof Pietrzak
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages47-76
Number of pages30
ISBN (Print)9783030643775
DOIs
StatePublished - 2020
Externally publishedYes
Event18th International Conference on Theory of Cryptography, TCCC 2020 - Durham, United States
Duration: 16 Nov 202019 Nov 2020

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume12551 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference18th International Conference on Theory of Cryptography, TCCC 2020
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityDurham
Period16/11/2019/11/20

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© International Association for Cryptologic Research 2020.

Funding

Alessandro Chiesa is funded by the Ethereum Foundation and Eylon Yogev is funded by the ISF grants 484/18, 1789/19, Len Blavatnik and the Blavatnik Foundation, and The Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center at Tel Aviv University. This work was done (in part) while the second author was visiting the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing. We thank Amey Bhangale, Karthik C. S., and Inbal Livni Navon for fruitful discussions regarding PCPs and the sliding scale conjecture. Alessandro Chiesa is funded by the Ethereum Foundation and Eylon Yogev is funded by the ISF grants 484/18, 1789/19, Len Blavatnik and the Blavatnik Foundation, and The Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center at Tel Aviv University. This work was done (in part) while the second author was visiting the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing.

FundersFunder number
Blavatnik Foundation
Blavatnik Family Foundation
Israel Science Foundation1789/19, 484/18
Tel Aviv University
Ethereum Foundation

    Keywords

    • Interactive oracle proofs
    • Succinct arguments

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