Towards Quantum-Safe Architectures for Self-Sovereign Identity

 Recent years have seen concerted efforts towards standardizing self-sovereign identity systems. In such systems, users are given full privacy-preserving control over credentials that are universally portable across digital services. However, the current cryptographic stack for self-sovereign identity remains vulnerable in the presence of sufficiently strong quantum computers. This poses a threat to long-lived credentials such as diplomas, whose life-span may plausibly intercept their arrival. 

This thesis is concerned with developing quantum-safe cryptographic stacks for self-sovereign iden?tity. First, a unifying abstraction is developed that allows instantiating privacy-preserving cre?dentials with diverse cryptographic primitives in a manner amenable to practical implementation concerns. Two concrete schemes are then given which realize the abstraction. The first relies is built entirely from hash-based cryptography, while the second combines quantum-safe general?purpose zero-knowledge proof systems with lattice-based signatures. Along the way, we map the available design space, highlight relevant open problems, and provide a full end-to-end picture of quantum-safe decentralized identity.