Secure multi-party computation

Abstract

Secure multi-party computation is an area of cryptography which deals with two or more parties computing a function on their private inputs. They wish to do so in a way that means that their private inputs still remain private. Of course depending on the function being computed, some information about the inputs may leak. The classical example is the so-called millionaires problem; suppose a bunch of millionaires have a lunch time meeting at an expensive restaurant and decide that the richest of them will pay the bill. However, they do not want to reveal their actual wealth to each other. This is an example of a secure multi-party computation.