Private Proofs of When and Where

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Authors: Uma Girish, Greg Gluch, Shafi Goldwasser, Tal Geula Malkin, Leo Orshansky, Henry Yuen
Cited by: 0

Abstract

Position verification schemes are interactive protocols where entities prove their physical location to others; this enables interactive proofs for statements of the form "I am at a location $L$." Although secure position verification cannot be achieved with classical protocols (even with computational assumptions), they are feasible with quantum protocols. In this paper we introduce the notion of zero-knowledge position verification, which generalizes position verification in two ways: 1. enabling entities to prove more sophisticated statements about their locations at different times (for example, "I was NOT near location $L$ at noon yesterday"). 2. maintaining privacy for any other detail about their true location besides the statement they are proving. We construct zero-knowledge position verification from standard position verification and post-quantum one-way functions. The central tool in our construction is a primitive we call position commitments, which allow entities to privately commit to their physical position in a particular moment, which is then revealed at some later time.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Quantum Information and Cryptography Cryptography and Data Security Advanced Authentication Protocols Security

Publication details

Journal / source
arXiv (Cornell University)
Publication date
26 January 2026
Document type
Preprint