Algorithm

Winternitz OTS (WOTS)

Family: hash-based.

The Winternitz one-time signature scheme signs a message by revealing points along hash chains. One key pair signs exactly one message. It is the original form of the idea that WOTS+ later improved. Merkle trees of such keys let a single root public key authorize many signatures, as Minima does.

Safety: High

Why this rating

Security rests only on the hash function, which is the most conservative assumption. Each key must never sign twice, so wallets must track key use. The original form has weaker security arguments than WOTS+, but no practical attack is known.

Standard

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/0-387-34805-0_21

Research

• A Certified Digital Signature (Merkle, 1989)
• Minima whitepaper: Quantum Secure

Implemented by

No libraries listed yet.