Nir Bitansky 

I'm an associate professor of computer science at NYU Courant and part of the Theory Group and Cryptography Group. 

I'm broadly interested in the theory of computation and the theory of cryptography in particular.

Before joining NYU, I was a faculty member at Tel Aviv University (now on leave). Before  that I was a postdoctoral researcher at MIT CSAIL hosted by Vinod Vaikuntanathan. I completed my Ph.D. at Tel Aviv University where I was advised by Ran Canetti.


Email

nirbitansky at nyu dot edu


Publications

Dot-Product Proofs and Their Applications

with Prahladh Harsha, Yuval Ishai, Ron Rothblum, and David Wu

FOCS 2024 PDF


Robust Additive Randomized Encodings from IO and Pseudo-non-linear Codes

with Sapir Freizeit

CRYPTO 2024 PDF


Amplification of Non-interactive Zero Knowledge, Revisited

with Nathan Geier

CRYPTO 2024 PDF


Reusable Online-Efficient Commitments

with Omer Paneth and Dana Shamir

CRYPTO 2024


Batch Proofs are Statistically Hiding

with Chethan Kamath, Omer Paneth, Ron Rothblum, and Prashant Vasudevan

STOC 2024 PDF


Non-Interactive Universal Arguments

with Omer Paneth, Dana Shamir, and Tomer Solomon

CRYPTO 2023 PDF


Bootstrapping Homomorphic Encryption via Functional Encryption

with Tomer Solomon

ITCS 2023 PDF


PPAD is as Hard as LWE and Iterated Squaring

with  Arka Rai Choudhuri, Justin Homgren, Chethan Kamath, Alex Lombardi, Omer Paneth, and Ron D. Rothblum

TCC 2022 PDF 


Constructive Post-quantum Reductions

    with Zvika Brakerski and Yael Tauman Kalai

CRYPTO , QCRYPT 2022 PDF


Statistically Sender Private OT from LPN and Derandomization

    with Sapir Freizeit

CRYPTO 2022 PDF


Non-malleable Commitments Against Quantum Attacks 

    with Huijia Lin and Omri Shmueli

EUROCRYPT, QCRYPT 2022 PDF


Classical Binding for Quantum Commitments

    with Zvika Brakerski 

TCC 2021   PDF


Post-quantum Resettably-Sound Zero Knowledge

    with Michael Kelner and Omri Shmueli

TCC 2021, QCRYPT 2021   PDF


    Characterizing Deterministic Prover Zero Knowledge

    with Arka Rai Choudhuri

TCC 2020   PDF


Weakly Extractable One Way Functions

    with Noa Eizenstadt and Omer Paneth

TCC 2020   PDF


Post-quantum Zero Knowledge in Constant Rounds

    with Omri Shmueli

STOC 2020, QCRYPT 2020, QIP 2021   PDF


On the Cryptographic Hardness of Local Search

    with Idan Gerichter

ITCS 2020    PDF

       

    On Oblivious Amplification of Coin-Tossing Protocols

    with Nathan Geier

ITCS 2020    PDF


On the Complexity of Collision Resistant Hash Functions: New and Old Black-Box Separations 

    with Akshay Degwekar

TCC 2019 PDF


On Round-Optimal Statistical Zero-Knowledge Arguments

with Omer Paneth

CRYPTO 2019 PDF


Weak Zero-Knowledge Beyond the Black-Box Barrier

    with Dakshita Khurana and  Omer Paneth

    STOC 2019, Siam Journal on Computing 2022 PDF


Distributional Collision Resistance Beyond One-Way Functions

    with  Iftach Haitner, Ilan Komargodski, and Eylon Yogev

    EUROCRYPT 2019  PDF  


One-Message Zero Knowledge and Non-Malleable Commitments

    with  Huijia Lin

    TCC 2018   PDF


Multi-Collision Resistance: A Paradigm for Keyless Hash Functions

    with Yael Tauman Kalai, and Omer Paneth

    STOC 2018   PDF

        

Verifiable Random Functions from Non-Interactive Witness-Indistinguishable Proofs

    TCC 2017,  Journal of Cryptology 2019    PDF        

       

Structure vs Hardness through the Obfuscation Lens

    with Akshay Degwekar and Vinod Vaikuntanathan

    CRYPTO 2017, Siam Journal on Computing 2021   Draft        

        

On Removing Graded Encodings from Functional Encryption

    with Huijia Lin and Omer Paneth 

    EUROCRYPT 2017   PDF

       

A Note on Perfect Correctness by Derandomization

    with Vinod Vaikuntanathan

    EUROCRYPT 2017, Journal of Cryptology 2022 PDF

        

From Cryptomania to Obfustopia through Secret-Key Functional Encryption

    with Ryo Nishimaki, Alain Passelègue, and Daniel Wichs

    TCC 2016B, Journal of Cryptology 2019    PDF

        

3-Message Zero Knowledge against Human Ignorance

    with Zvika Brakerski, Yael Tauman Kalai, Omer Paneth, and Vinod Vaikuntanathan

    TCC 2016B    PDF               

        

    Time-Lock Puzzles from Randomized Encodings

    with Shafi Goldwasser, Abhishek Jain, Omer Paneth, Vinod Vaikuntanathan, and Brent Waters

    ITCS 2016    PDF      

        

    Indistinguishability Obfuscation: from Approximate to Exact

    with Vinod Vaikuntanathan

    TCC 2016A   PDF    

           

    Perfect Structure on the Edge of Chaos

    with Omer Paneth and Daniel Wichs

    TCC 2016A     PDF

        

Indistinguishability Obfuscation from Functional Encryption

    with Vinod Vaikuntanathan

    FOCS 2015, Journal of the ACM 2018    PDF    

        

On the Cryptographic Hardness of Finding a Nash Equilibrium

    with Omer Paneth and Alon Rosen

    FOCS 2015    PDF

        

    Succinct Randomized Encodings and their Applications

    with Sanjam Garg, Huijia Lin, Rafael Pass, and Sidharth Telang  

    STOC 2015    PDF, Siam Journal on Computing 2019 (merged with Canetti, Holmgren, Jain, and Vaikuntanathan) 

    Merge of [BGT] and [LP]

     

    ZAPs and Non-Interactive Witness-Indistinguishability from Indistinguishability Obfuscation

    with Omer Paneth

    TCC 2015    PDF

        

On Virtual Grey Box Obfuscation for General Circuits

    with Ran Canetti, Yael Tauman Kalai, and Omer Paneth

    CRYPTO 2014,    Algorithmica 2016     Draft

 

The Impossibility of Obfuscation with Auxiliary Input or a Universal Simulator

    with Ran Canetti, Henry Cohn, Shafi Goldwasser, Yael Tauman Kalai, Omer Paneth, and Alon Rosen

    CRYPTO 2014    PDF     

    Merge of [BCPR] and [CGK]      

        

Leakage-Tolerant Computation with Input-Independent Preprocessing

    with Dana Dachman-Soled and Huijia Lin

    CRYPTO 2014    PDF       

  

On the Existence of Extractable One-Way Functions

    with Ran Canetti, Omer Paneth, and Alon Rosen

    STOC 2014,    Siam Journal on Computing 2016     Draft 

    Merge of [BCP] and [BCPR]      

        

Obfuscation for Evasive Functions

    with Boaz Barak, Ran CanettiYael Tauman Kalai, Omer Paneth, and Amit Sahai

    TCC 2014    PDF

          

Why "Fiat-Shamir for Proofs" Lacks a Proof

    with Dana Dachman-Soled, Sanjam Garg, Abhishek Jain, Yael Tauman Kalai, Adriana Lopez-Alt, and Daniel Wichs 

    TCC 2013

    Merge of [BGW] and [DJKL]

        

Succinct Non-Interactive Arguments via Linear Interactive Proofs

    with Alessandro Chiesa, Yuval Ishai, Rafail Ostrovsky, Omer Paneth

    TCC 2013, Journal of Cryptology 2022    PDF

       

Recursive Composition and Bootstrapping for SNARKs and Proof-Carrying Data

    with Ran Canetti, Alessandro Chiesa, Eran Tromer

    STOC 2013    PDF        

        

On the Impossibility of Approximate Obfuscation and Applications to Resettable Cryptography

    with Omer Paneth

    STOC 2013    (subsumed by Siam Journal on Computing 2015    Draft

        

From the Impossibility of Obfuscation to a New Non-Black-Box Simulation Technique

    with Omer Paneth 

    FOCS 2012,    Siam Journal on Computing 2015    Draft

        

Succinct Arguments from Multi-Prover Interactive Proofs and their Efficiency Benefits

    with  Alessandro Chiesa 

    CRYPTO 2012    PDF

        

Leakage-Tolerant Interactive Protocols

    with Ran Canetti and Shai Halevi

    TCC 2012    PDF

   

Point Obfuscation and 3-Message Zero Knowledge

    with Omer Paneth

    TCC 2012    PDF

 

The Hunting of the SNARK    

    with Ran Canetti, Alessandro Chiesa, Shafi Goldwasser, Huijia Lin, Aviad Rubinstein, Eran Tromer

    Journal of Cryptology 2016    PDF

Preliminary version: From Extractable Collision Resistance to Succinct Non-Interactive Arguments of Knowledge, and Back Again

    with Ran Canetti, Alessandro Chiesa, Eran Tromer

    ITCS 2012

        

Program Obfuscation with Leaky Hardware

    with Ran Canetti, Shafi Goldwasser, Shai Halevi, Yael Tauman Kalai, Guy N. Rothblum

    ASIACRYPT 2011    PDF

        

On Strong Simulation and Composable Point Obfuscation

    with Ran Canetti

    CRYPTO 2010,    Journal of Cryptology 2013    PDF

        

Thesis

        Getting Inside the Adversary's Head: New Directions in Non-Black-Box Knowledge Extraction

        Tel Aviv University 2015    PDF

Some Videotaped Talks        

Constructive Post-quantum Reductions (Crypto '22)

Classical Binding for Quantum Commitments  (TCC '21)   

On the Cryptographic Hardness of Local Search  (ITCS '20)   

On Round-Optimal Statistical Zero-Knowledge Arguments  (Crypto '19)   

Our Current Knowledge of Knowledge Assumptions (Dimacs workshop on cryptographic assumptions '17)

On Removing Graded Encodings from Functional Encryption (Eurocrypt '17)   

     A Note on Perfect Correctness by Derandomization (Eurocrypt '17)

     A Reduction from Flying Pigs to Jumping Pigs (IAS, March '17)

     On the Cryptographic Hardness of Finding a Nash Equilibrium (IAS, March '17, shorter version at FOCS '15)

     Program Obfuscation: The Power of Unreadable Code (UW Colloquium, April '16) 

     Indistinguishability Obfuscation from Functional Encryption (FOCS '15)

     Time-Lock Puzzles from Randomized Encodings (Simons Institute, July '15)

     On Virtual Grey Box Obfuscation for General Circuits (Crypto '14)

     Leakage-Tolerant Computation with Input-Independent Preprocessing (Crypto '14)


Program Committees    

       Crypto     2024 (Area Chair) , 2021

   Eurocrypt                                                                             2021, 2019, 2018, 2017

        Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS)                   2022, 2018

        Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science (ITCS)         2023, 2020 

        Public Key Cryptography (PKC)                                                2017

        Symposium on Theory of Computing (STOC) 2025

    Theory of Cryptography Conference (TCC)                         2022, 2019, 2017, 2016A, 2015


Students and Postdocs 

Ph.D. 

Sapir Freizeit (TAU)Nathan Geier (TAU)Omri Shmueli (TAU, co-advised with Zvika Brakerski)

M.Sc. 

Dana Shamir (TAU, co-advised with Omer Paneth)Tomer Solomon (TAU, graduated 2023)Idan Gerichter (TAU, graduated 2022) Sapir Freizeit (TAU, graduated 2022)Nathan Geier (TAU, graduated 2021)Michael Kelner (TAU, graduated 2021)Noa Eizenstadt (TAU, graduated 2020) Omri Shmueli (TAU, graduated 2020)

Hosted Postdocs 

James Bartusek (NYU)Rachit Garg (NYU)Chethan Kamath (TAU, co-hosted with Omer Paneth, now Assistant Professor at IIT Bombay)Eylon Yogev (TAU, co-hosted with Omer Paneth, now Assistant Professor at Bar-Ilan University)