Pebbling and proofs of work

  • Authors:
  • Cynthia Dwork;Moni Naor;Hoeteck Wee

  • Affiliations:
  • Microsoft Research;Weizmann Institute of Science;University of California, Berkeley

  • Venue:
  • CRYPTO'05 Proceedings of the 25th annual international conference on Advances in Cryptology
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

We investigate methods for providing easy-to-check proofs of computational effort. Originally intended for discouraging spam, the concept has wide applicability as a method for controlling denial of service attacks. Dwork, Goldberg, and Naor proposed a specific memory-bound function for this purpose and proved an asymptotically tight amortized lower bound on the number of memory accesses any polynomial time bounded adversary must make. Their function requires a large random table which, crucially, cannot be compressed. We answer an open question of Dwork et al. by designing a compact representation for the table. The paradox, compressing an incompressible table, is resolved by embedding a time/space tradeoff into the process for constructing the table from its representation.