The Cocaine Auction Protocol: On the Power of Anonymous Broadcast

Abstract. Traditionally, cryptographic protocols are described as a sequence of steps, in each of which one principal sends a message to another. It is assumed that the fundamental communication primitive is necessarily one-to-one, so protocols addressing anonymity tend to resort to the composition of multiple elementary transmissions in order to frustrate traffic analysis. This paper builds on a case study, of an anonymous auction between mistrustful principals with no trusted arbitrator, to introduce “anonymous broadcast” as a new protocol building block. This primitive is, in many interesting cases, a more accurate model of what actually happens during transmission. With certain restrictions it can give a particularly efficient implementation technique for many anonymity-related protocols.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1999
• Where: IH
• Authors: Frank Stajano, Ross J. Anderson
• Keywords: Cryptographic Protocols, IH 1999, Information Management, Multiple Elementary Transmissions, Protocols Addressing Anonymity