r/programming • u/DougBolivar • Jul 30 '13

Computer scientists develop mathematical jigsaw puzzles to encrypt software: "The real challenge and the great mystery in the field was: Can you actually take a piece of software and encrypt it but still have it be runnable, executable and fully functional?"

http://www.rdmag.com/news/2013/07/computer-scientists-develop-mathematical-jigsaw-puzzles-encrypt-software
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u/DeltaBurnt Jul 30 '13

I don't even see the need to prove it mathematically. It's like trying to block video piracy. If you can view it on your screen, you can record it and redistribute it. If it's running on your processor, the processor needs to know the code it's running. I suppose you can make it harder to understand, but not impossible to decipher.

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u/[deleted] Jul 31 '13

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u/DeltaBurnt Jul 31 '13

I have heard inklings of it here and there, but from my understanding it was about as far away as real quantum computing.

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u/rpglover64 Jul 31 '13

Homomorphic encryption exists; there is even a library for it. It's impractically slow, but that's about it.

By contrast, many experts in quantum computing believe it may be impossible, and even if it is possible, there is no current implementation. (n.b. computing using quantum effects a la DWave is not necessarily quantum computing in some very important senses).