Author: Jan Møller 2014-04-22 08:39:52
Published on: 2014-04-22T08:39:52+00:00
In an email conversation between Jan Møller and Matt Whitlock, the topic of allowing users to select just one share when using a secret sharing scheme was discussed. While it may seem unnecessary from a technical point of view, there could be reasons for end-users to prefer managing just one piece of paper. Whitlock initially resisted the idea, stating that having only one share is functionally equivalent to dispensing with the secret sharing scheme altogether. However, he eventually agreed that allowing M=1 would simplify the software/hardware by not having to support multiple formats, import/export paths, and UIs for different numbers of shares. Møller also proposed encoding N-of-M in 1 byte since there aren't many use cases for more than 17 shares, which Whitlock agreed to as well. The email ends with Whitlock asking if M can be encoded using a bias of -1 so that M up to and including 256 can be encoded in one byte.
Updated on: 2023-06-08T17:01:07.134379+00:00