Reading log
Dated notes on what the lab is reading — papers, specifications, reference implementations — with a few sentences of commentary each. Newest first.
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Classic McEliece: conservative code-based cryptography
Read as the leading candidate for a code-based hedge against structured-lattice monoculture. The trade is stark and instructive: very large public keys against a security assumption that has survived decades of scrutiny largely unchanged. For the diversification argument the relevant question is not whether McEliece is better than a lattice scheme, but how independent its failure mode is — and on that axis the long, quiet history is exactly the point. The deployment cost (key size, transmission) is the thing to measure next.
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FIPS 204 — Module-Lattice-Based Digital Signature Standard
Read for the concrete object sizes rather than the security argument. The point of interest for the authentication work is the relationship between the three parameter sets and their signature/public-key footprints, since those are the numbers that have to fit a protocol budget. The deterministic-versus-hedged signing distinction is also worth holding onto: it changes the failure surface, not just performance. Next: pull the exact byte sizes into the certificate-chain estimate.