An encryption scheme whose security comes from hiding the equivalence relation (orbit structure) that makes data meaningful instead of hiding the data itself.

[u/hatter6822]

No other cryptography related sub will let me post so I figured I'd give this one a shot. I decided to make an encryption scheme over the past couple weeks after reading a Jonathan Gorard post about the role of symmetry in physics. I used Claude extensively so treat it as such but it has some pretty interesting properties. Check out the use cases section if you are interested in what makes it interesting (yes I know quantum computers are not a threat to 128-bit symmetric keys).

I expect a bit of hate (already got a bit lol) for AI/rolling my own but maybe someone out in the world will be interested in poking it a bit. I've been having fun messing around with the idea.

[u/alami9]

The Gorard connection is what caught my eye. What specific symmetry concept ended up influencing the design the most? Always interesting when physics intuitions bleed into crypto even if the end result is more toy than production.

[u/hatter6822 → u/alami9]

To me Gorard was pointing out that any universe without symmetry is basically a singularity (Black Holes and pre-Big Bang) and therefore impossible to reason about accurately. Creating symmetries that can be removed or revealed for a unique observer seemed like a really efficient and natural way of hiding data, so I decided to play with the idea. Choosing to use orbit structures was also a bit of a homage, but one that had practical benefits.