Jiwon Kim

University of Michigan CSE PhD student researching applied cryptography and zero-knowledge proofs. A former Microsoft Research Cryptography Group intern, Kim is the lead author of Haechi, a commitment-based, keyless system for in-person verifiable elections.

Keyless Ballot Commitments Cut Verifiable Election Records by Over 100-Fold

Microsoft Research’s Jiwon Kim argues that Haechi can make in-person end-to-end verifiable elections simpler to operate and easier to audit by replacing per-candidate ballot encryption with a single cryptographic commitment to each voter’s selections. The design eliminates decryption-key management and uses compact zero-knowledge proofs to reduce the size of public election records while allowing voters to check ballot inclusion and anyone to verify that the published tally matches the committed ballots. Kim’s performance comparison puts a 1m-voter, 100-candidate record at roughly 800 MB for Haechi’s P-256 configuration, against more than 100 GB for ElectionGuard.

Microsoft ResearchAug 9, 202612 min read