A reliable time lock encryption scheme for relatively weak computational resources

Abstract

Time-lock encryption is a type of encryption in which the process is bound by a factor of time that enables previously impossible applications such as secure auctions, mortgage payment, key escrow, or fair multiparty computations. Existing solution approaches of time lock either employ computational overhead to calculate time or use analogues to map the real-world time, hence lacks reliability. We propose a reliable time-lock encryption scheme, where even receivers with relatively weak computational resources can decrypt the cipher after an accurate real-world deadline, without any interaction with the sender. Proposed solution uses time fetched from timeservers over secured https channel for time lock accuracy and strong AES-256 encryption/decryption techniques for reliability. The paper briefly discusses a java based prototype implementation of the proposed approach and the experimental results.