---
title: Oblivious Transfer
description: The base OT and correlated OT extension underneath threshold ECDSA — simplest (Verified Simplest OT) and kos (KOS15 cOT extension).
sidebar:
  order: 6
  icon: shuffle
---

:::note[These are internal building blocks, not a user-facing API]
`ot/base/simplest` and `ot/extension/kos` exist to serve
[`tecdsa/dklsv1`](/threshold/threshold-ecdsa). They are exported because the tECDSA packages need
them across package boundaries, not because application code is meant to call them. If you are
building a wallet, use [MPC Enclave](/identity/mpc-enclave); if you are building a signing service,
use the `dklsv1` iterators. This page is here so you can *understand and audit* the layer beneath
tECDSA, and so that a `simplest.SenderOutput` appearing in a DKG result type is not a mystery.
:::

## What oblivious transfer is, and why ECDSA needs it

In 1-out-of-2 OT the sender holds two strings `m_0`, `m_1`; the receiver holds a choice bit `b`.
After the protocol the receiver knows `m_b` and nothing about `m_{1-b}`, and the sender learns
nothing about `b`.

ECDSA needs this because signing requires computing `k^{-1}(H(m) + r·sk)` where `k` and `sk` are
both *split across two parties*. Adding shares is free; multiplying them is not. The standard
two-party trick is to expand one party's secret into bits, have the other party offer a correlated
pair per bit, and let OT select. Sum the selections and you have an additive sharing of the product,
with neither side having learned a factor. That is precisely what `sign.MultiplySender` /
`MultiplyReceiver` do, and `kos` is the OT engine they drive.

## Two layers, one reason

Base OT costs public-key operations — a Schnorr proof, a scalar multiplication per instance. A
single ECDSA signature needs thousands of OTs. Running thousands of base OTs would be intolerably
slow.

**OT extension** fixes this. You run a small fixed number of base OTs once — `kos.Kappa` = 256 of
them, the computational security parameter — and then stretch that seed material into arbitrarily
many OTs using nothing but hashing and binary-field arithmetic. In `kos` each extension produces
`L = 2·Kappa + 2·s = 672` correlated OTs (with `s = 80`, the statistical security parameter) from
that one seed set.

So the pipeline is: **`simplest` once → `kos` many times.**

<Steps>
<Step title="Seed OT — 256 instances of ot/base/simplest">
Run during DKG. Its outputs (`SenderOutput` for Bob, `ReceiverOutput` for Alice) are persisted as
part of the DKG result and reused for every subsequent signature.
</Step>
<Step title="cOT extension — ot/extension/kos, per signature">
Consumes the persisted seed OT results and produces the 672 correlated OTs a signature needs, in
three cheap rounds.
</Step>
</Steps>

:::warning[Roles cross between the layers]
`NewCOtSender` takes a `*simplest.ReceiverOutput`, and `NewCOtReceiver` takes a
`*simplest.SenderOutput`. The constructor docs flag this explicitly — "note the reversal of roles".
Wire them the intuitive way and the protocol fails.
:::

## `ot/base/simplest` — Verified Simplest OT

The package doc names its lineage precisely: "Verified Simplest OT" as defined in "protocol 7" of
[DKLs18](https://eprint.iacr.org/2018/499.pdf), with the original Simplest OT from
[CC15](https://eprint.iacr.org/2015/267.pdf). Multiple choice bits run in parallel, and it is
implemented as a **Random OT** — the sender does not choose its messages; both are random pads
produced by the protocol.

### Security model, from the source

- The "Verified" prefix is the point: rounds 4–6 are a challenge/response/opening phase that lets
  the receiver detect a cheating sender. This is the **maliciously secure** variant of Simplest OT,
  not the semi-honest one.
- Ideal functionalities are instantiated concretely, and the package says which: ZKP Schnorr realizes
  the `F^{R_{DL}}_{ZK}` zero-knowledge functionality, and *"We have used HMAC for realizing the Random
  Oracle Hash function, the key for HMAC is received as input to the protocol."* The HMAC key is the
  `uniqueSessionId`.
- Session binding uses a Merlin transcript, initialised with the domain string
  `"Coinbase_DKLs_SeedOT"` and immediately absorbing `uniqueSessionId`.

### Construction

```go
import (
	"crypto/rand"

	"github.com/sonr-io/crypto/core/curves"
	"github.com/sonr-io/crypto/ot/base/simplest"
)

curve := curves.K256()

// Fresh, unpredictable, and identical on both sides. See the danger callout.
uniqueSessionId := [simplest.DigestSize]byte{}
if _, err := rand.Read(uniqueSessionId[:]); err != nil {
	return err
}

const batchSize = 256 // must be a multiple of 8

sender, err := simplest.NewSender(curve, batchSize, uniqueSessionId)
if err != nil {
	return err
}
receiver, err := simplest.NewReceiver(curve, batchSize, uniqueSessionId)
if err != nil {
	return err
}
```

<TypeTable
  type={{
    curve: {
      type: "*curves.Curve",
      required: true,
      description: "Group for the Diffie–Hellman-style pad derivation. Tests exercise K256 and P256.",
    },
    batchSize: {
      type: "int",
      required: true,
      description: "Number of parallel OTs. MUST be a multiple of 8 — the constructors reject anything else with 'batch size should be a multiple of 8', because choice bits are stored packed. tECDSA passes kos.Kappa (256).",
    },
    uniqueSessionId: {
      type: "[simplest.DigestSize]byte",
      required: true,
      description: "32 bytes. Doubles as the Merlin transcript session binding and the HMAC key for the random oracle. Both parties must supply the identical value, and it must never repeat.",
    },
  }}
/>

`DigestSize = 32` — the hash length, and also the plaintext/ciphertext size for the optional
encryption steps.

### The eight interleaved rounds

As in tECDSA, the numbers form one global sequence across both parties; the sender owns the odd
rounds and the receiver the even ones. `ot/ottest.RunSimplestOT` wires all of it up:

```go
import "github.com/sonr-io/crypto/ot/ottest"

// Creates both parties, runs rounds 1–6, and returns their outputs.
senderOutput, receiverOutput, err := ottest.RunSimplestOT(curve, batchSize, uniqueSessionId)
```

Its own doc says it is "a utility function used _only_ during various tests". The sequence it
performs, which is the canonical call order:

<Steps>
<Step title="Round 1 — sender: Round1ComputeAndZkpToPublicKey() (*schnorr.Proof, error)">
Sender computes its key pair `B = b·G` and returns a Schnorr proof of knowledge of `b`. Protocol 7,
step 1.
</Step>
<Step title="Round 2 — receiver: Round2VerifySchnorrAndPadTransfer(proof) ([]ReceiversMaskedChoices, error)">
Receiver verifies the proof (step 2) and performs the Pad Transfer (step 3), returning the masked
choices — the paper's `A` values, in compressed form. Its own random choice bits were generated in
`NewReceiver`.
</Step>
<Step title="Round 3 — sender: Round3PadTransfer(maskedChoices) ([]OtChallenge, error)">
Steps 4 and 5. Sender derives both one-time pads per instance and emits the challenges `xi`.
</Step>
<Step title="Round 4 — receiver: Round4RespondToChallenge(challenge) ([]OtChallengeResponse, error)">
Step 6. Start of the Verify phase: the receiver returns `rho'` for the sender to check.
</Step>
<Step title="Round 5 — sender: Round5Verify(challengeResponses) ([]ChallengeOpening, error)">
Step 7. Aborts if `rho' != H(H(rho^0))`. On success the sender opens its challenges.
</Step>
<Step title="Round 6 — receiver: Round6Verify(challengeOpenings) error">
Step 8, the last verification. Aborts unless `H(rho^w)` matches what the receiver computed itself
*and* `xi == H(opening_0) XOR H(opening_1)`. After this returns nil the random OT is complete and
`Output` is valid on both sides.
</Step>
<Step title="Rounds 7 and 8 — OPTIONAL, only for non-random OT">
`sender.Round7Encrypt(messages)` and `receiver.Round8Decrypt(ciphertext)` bootstrap the random OT
into an actual OT of chosen messages. The package doc states these are optional and that "in the
setting where this OT is used as the seed OT in an OT Extension protocol, the encryption and
decryption steps are not needed" — so tECDSA never calls them.
</Step>
</Steps>

### Outputs

<TypeTable
  type={{
    "SenderOutput.OneTimePadEncryptionKeys": {
      type: "[]OneTimePadEncryptionKeys",
      required: true,
      description: "Rho^0 and Rho^1 — both pads per instance, as [2][32]byte. One entry per batch slot. Secret.",
    },
    "ReceiverOutput.OneTimePadDecryptionKey": {
      type: "[]OneTimePadDecryptionKey",
      required: true,
      description: "Rho^w — exactly one pad per instance, as [32]byte: the one matching the receiver's choice bit. Secret.",
    },
    "ReceiverOutput.PackedRandomChoiceBits": {
      type: "[]byte",
      required: true,
      description: "The choice vector packed one bit per bit, batchSize/8 bytes. Secret.",
    },
    "ReceiverOutput.RandomChoiceBits": {
      type: "[]int",
      required: true,
      description: "The same choices unpacked, one int per instance. Derived from the packed form at construction.",
    },
  }}
/>

The correctness invariant, which the tests assert directly:

$$
\texttt{ReceiverOutput.OneTimePadDecryptionKey}[i] = \texttt{SenderOutput.OneTimePadEncryptionKeys}[i][\texttt{RandomChoiceBits}[i]]
$$

The optional message layer is `SenderOutput.Encrypt(plaintexts)` (protocol step 9) and
`ReceiverOutput.Decrypt(ciphertexts)` (step 10); the round wrappers above just call these.
`ExtractBitFromByteVector(vector []byte, index int) byte` reads the `index`-th bit of a packed
vector, little-endian both across and within bytes — needed to interpret `PackedRandomChoiceBits`
by hand.

### Streaming helpers

```go
senderPipe, receiverPipe := simplest.NewPipeWrappers()
errorsChannel := make(chan error, 2)

go func() { errorsChannel <- simplest.SenderStreamOTRun(sender, senderPipe) }()
go func() { errorsChannel <- simplest.ReceiverStreamOTRun(receiver, receiverPipe) }()

for i := 0; i < 2; i++ {
	if err := <-errorsChannel; err != nil {
		return err
	}
}
```

`SenderStreamOTRun(sender *Sender, rw io.ReadWriter) error` and
`ReceiverStreamOTRun(receiver *Receiver, rw io.ReadWriter) error` run the whole six-round process
over one `io.ReadWriter` — a websocket in practice — handling all encoding and decoding. The docs
frame the purpose as "conveniently bundling up the entire seed OT process, for use in tests".
`NewPipeWrappers()` returns a connected in-memory pair for driving both sides in one process.

## `ot/extension/kos` — correlated OT extension

Maliciously secure OT extension, "Protocol 9" of DKLs18, originally
[KOS15](https://eprint.iacr.org/2015/546.pdf) — both cited in the package doc.

This is *correlated* OT: the receiver supplies a choice vector, the sender supplies input scalars
`alpha_j`, and the two outputs add to `alpha_j` where the choice bit is 1 and to zero where it is 0.
That additive-sharing-of-a-selected-value shape is exactly what the multiplication protocol
consumes.

### Constants

| Constant | Value | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `Kappa` | 256 | Computational security parameter — and the number of base OTs required |
| `KappaBytes` | 32 | `Kappa >> 3` |
| `L` | 672 | cOT batch size, `2*Kappa + 2*s` with `s = 80` (statistical security parameter) |
| `COtBlockSizeBytes` | 84 | `L >> 3` — size of the packed choice vector |
| `OtWidth` | 2 | Scalars per cOT slot; both parties get `OtWidth` shares per bit |

### Three rounds

```go
import (
	"crypto/rand"

	"github.com/sonr-io/crypto/core/curves"
	"github.com/sonr-io/crypto/ot/base/simplest"
	"github.com/sonr-io/crypto/ot/extension/kos"
	"github.com/sonr-io/crypto/ot/ottest"
)

func runCOt(curve *curves.Curve) error {
	uniqueSessionId := [simplest.DigestSize]byte{}
	if _, err := rand.Read(uniqueSessionId[:]); err != nil {
		return err
	}

	// Seed OT: exactly Kappa base OTs.
	baseSenderOutput, baseReceiverOutput, err := ottest.RunSimplestOT(curve, kos.Kappa, uniqueSessionId)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	// Note the crossed roles.
	sender := kos.NewCOtSender(baseReceiverOutput, curve)
	receiver := kos.NewCOtReceiver(baseSenderOutput, curve)

	// Receiver's input: the packed choice vector.
	choice := [kos.COtBlockSizeBytes]byte{}
	if _, err = rand.Read(choice[:]); err != nil {
		return err
	}

	// Sender's input: the correlations alpha_j.
	input := [kos.L][kos.OtWidth]curves.Scalar{}
	for i := 0; i < kos.L; i++ {
		for j := 0; j < kos.OtWidth; j++ {
			input[i][j] = curve.Scalar.Random(rand.Reader)
		}
	}

	round1Output, err := receiver.Round1Initialize(uniqueSessionId, choice)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	round2Output, err := sender.Round2Transfer(uniqueSessionId, input, round1Output)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	if err = receiver.Round3Transfer(round2Output); err != nil {
		return err
	}

	// Invariant: for every slot j and every k < OtWidth,
	//   sender.OutputAdditiveShares[j][k] + receiver.OutputAdditiveShares[j][k]
	//     == input[j][k]   if choice bit j is 1
	//     == 0             if choice bit j is 0
	return nil
}
```

<Steps>
<Step title="Round 1 — receiver: Round1Initialize(uniqueSessionId, choice) (*Round1Output, error)">
Steps 1–4 of Protocol 9. The receiver extends its packed `L`-bit choice vector, derives the matrix
`U` from the seed OT pads, and emits `Round1Output{U, WPrime, VPrime}` — `WPrime` and `VPrime` are
the consistency-check values that make the extension maliciously secure rather than merely
semi-honest.
</Step>
<Step title="Round 2 — sender: Round2Transfer(uniqueSessionId, input, round1Output) (*Round2Output, error)">
Steps 2, 5 and 6. The sender checks `WPrime`/`VPrime`, transposes and hashes the matrix, and returns
`Round2Output{Tau}`. Side effect: `sender.OutputAdditiveShares` is populated.
</Step>
<Step title="Round 3 — receiver: Round3Transfer(round2Output) error">
Step 7. The receiver computes its own `OutputAdditiveShares` from `Tau`. No return value beyond the
error.
</Step>
</Steps>

Both parties read their result from the exported field
`OutputAdditiveShares [L][OtWidth]curves.Scalar`.

Streaming equivalents mirror the base layer:
`SenderStreamCOtRun(sender *Sender, hashKeySeed [simplest.DigestSize]byte, input [L][OtWidth]curves.Scalar, rw io.ReadWriter) error`
and
`ReceiverStreamCOtRun(receiver *Receiver, hashKeySeed [simplest.DigestSize]byte, choice [COtBlockSizeBytes]byte, rw io.ReadWriter) error`.
Both take the inputs plus a `ReadWriter` and handle every round and every encode/decode.

## Caveats

:::danger[Never reuse a uniqueSessionId across executions]
The session id is not a label. In `simplest` it is absorbed into the Merlin transcript that binds
the Schnorr proof and every hash in the protocol; the package doc identifies it as *the HMAC key
realizing the random oracle*. In `kos` it is passed to both `Round1Initialize` and `Round2Transfer`
and keys the matrix hashing.

Reusing one across two executions therefore reuses the random-oracle keying. Two runs produce
related pads, the consistency-check values from one run become valid transcripts for another, and
the malicious-security argument — which assumes a fresh independent oracle per session — no longer
holds. Concretely, replaying a recorded round-1 message under a repeated session id is exactly the
attack the transcript binding exists to stop.

The rules:

- 32 bytes from a CSPRNG, per execution. Both parties must hold the identical value, so derive it
  from *both* parties' contributions and agree on it before round 1 — that is why
  `dklsv1`'s `Round1GenerateRandomSeed` has each side sample 32 bytes and appends both, with the
  documented property "secure if either party is honest".
- Never derive it from a counter, a timestamp, a key id, or anything an adversary can predict or
  force to repeat.
- Never persist and reuse one across signatures. Each signature runs a fresh cOT extension with a
  fresh session id.
- Do not confuse it with the *seed OT output*, which is deliberately long-lived. The seed OT result
  is reused for many signatures; the session id of each cOT extension is not.
:::

:::warning[batchSize must be a multiple of 8]
The package doc states the limitation plainly: "currently we only support batch OTs that are
multiples of 8." Choice bits are packed, and both constructors reject a non-multiple with `batch
size should be a multiple of 8`. `kos` always passes `Kappa` (256), which satisfies it.
:::

:::warning[Every output field is key material]
`SenderOutput.OneTimePadEncryptionKeys`, `ReceiverOutput.OneTimePadDecryptionKey`, and
`ReceiverOutput.PackedRandomChoiceBits` / `RandomChoiceBits` are all secret. They are persisted
inside `dkg.AliceOutput.SeedOtResult` and `dkg.BobOutput.SeedOtResult`, and
[serialised in the clear](/threshold/threshold-ecdsa) by the `dklsv1` encoders. Encrypt them at
rest. The one consolation the DKG docs note: unlike a lost `SecretKeyShare`, disclosed seed-OT
material can be replaced by re-running OT — which is what
[key refresh](/threshold/threshold-ecdsa) does.
:::

:::warning[Not constant time]
These packages do byte-level bit manipulation, binary-field multiplication, and matrix transposition
over secret choice vectors, using ordinary indexing and branching. Only the `batchSize & 0x07`
check carries a constant-time comment. Assume nothing here resists timing or cache analysis.
:::

:::note[No audit claim, and correctness only asserted for K256/P256]
This is a port of Coinbase's Kryptology. The live tests run `TestOtOnMultipleCurves`,
`TestOTStreaming`, `TestCOTExtension`, `TestCOTExtensionStreaming`, and `TestBinaryMult` — the cOT
tests over `curves.K256()` and `curves.P256()` only. Nothing here constitutes a security review of
either package. See [Security Notes](/reference/security).
:::

:::note[State is single-use]
A `Sender`/`Receiver` pair, at either layer, serves exactly one protocol execution. Round methods
mutate the value and are not goroutine-safe.
:::

## Next

<CardGroup cols={2}>
<Card title="Threshold ECDSA" href="/threshold/threshold-ecdsa" icon="pen-tool">
The consumer: DKG rounds 6–10 are the seed OT, and every signature runs a cOT extension.
</Card>
<Card title="Schnorr Proofs" href="/zero-knowledge/schnorr" icon="fingerprint">
The proof of knowledge in base OT round 1.
</Card>
<Card title="Curves & Scalars" href="/foundations/curves" icon="binary">
The `Curve`, `Point`, and `Scalar` types both packages are generic over.
</Card>
<Card title="Threshold Overview" href="/threshold" icon="users">
Where this layer sits in the stack.
</Card>
</CardGroup>