A full characterization of functions that imply fair coin tossing and ramifications to fairness

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Abstract

It is well known that it is impossible for two parties to toss a coin fairly (Cleve, STOC 1986). This result implies that it is impossible to securely compute with fairness any function that can be used to toss a fair coin. In this paper, we focus on the class of deterministic Boolean functions with finite domain, and we ask for which functions in this class is it possible to information-theoretically toss an unbiased coin, given a protocol for securely computing the function with fairness. We provide a complete characterization of the functions in this class that imply and do not imply fair coin tossing. This characterization extends our knowledge of which functions cannot be securely computed with fairness. In addition, it provides a focus as to which functions may potentially be securely computed with fairness, since a function that cannot be used to fairly toss a coin is not ruled out by the impossibility result of Cleve (which is the only known impossibility result for fairness). In addition to the above, we draw corollaries to the feasibility of achieving fairness in two possible fail-stop models.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationTheory of Cryptography - 10th Theory of Cryptography Conference, TCC 2013, Proceedings
Pages243-262
Number of pages20
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013
Event10th Theory of Cryptography Conference, TCC 2013 - Tokyo, Japan
Duration: 3 Mar 20136 Mar 2013

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume7785 LNCS

Conference

Conference10th Theory of Cryptography Conference, TCC 2013
Country/TerritoryJapan
CityTokyo
Period3/03/136/03/13

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Theoretical Computer Science
  • General Computer Science

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