Fair Contract Signing Protocol Based on Short Signature

Abstract

Based on Zhang’s short signature scheme without random oracles and k+1-square roots assumption, a new fair contract signing protocol with the off-line semi-Trusted Third Party is given because the disadvantages of existed fair contract signing protocol. The off-line semi-TTP intervenes into the protocol in cases where one party attempts to cheat or simply crashes to make the fair exchange optimistic. The off-line TTP need not be completely trusted, since the TTP can get neither exchanged signature when dispute is mediated. Because this protocol is based on short signature, which needs low storage and little communication, it can be used in low-bandwidth communication and low-storage environments.