We consider the task of extending a given coin toss. By this, we mean the two-party task of using a single instance of a given coin toss protocol in order to interactively generate more random coins. A bit more formally, our goal is to generate n common random coins from a single use of an ideal functionality that gives
m<n common random coins to both parties. In the framework of universal composability, we show the impossibility of securely extending a coin toss for statistical and perfect security. On the other hand, for computational security, the existence of a protocol for coin toss extension depends on the number m of random coins that can be obtained “for free.” For the case of stand-alone security, i.e., a simulation-based security definition without an environment, we present a protocol for statistically secure coin toss extension. Our protocol works for superlogarithmic m, which is optimal as we show the impossibility of statistically secure coin toss extension for smaller m. Combining our results with already known results, we obtain a (nearly) complete characterization under which circumstances coin toss extension is possible.
An ideal coin tossing resource for two parties outputs the same random bit to both parties. We introduce the notion of an unfair coin tossing resource by relaxing both the fairness and the non-influenceability guarantees that an ideal coin toss would provide. The presence of this non-ideal behavior is necessary in order to understand what coin tossing protocols really achieve in the setting of two distrustful parties, since it is known that such an ideal coin tossing resource cannot be constructed whenever a majority of players is dishonest.
Ben-Or and Linial, in a seminal work, introduced the full information model to study collective coin-tossing protocols. Collective coin-tossing is an elegant functionality providing uncluttered access to the primary bottlenecks to achieve security in a specific adversarial model. Additionally, the research outcomes for this versatile functionality has direct consequences on diverse topics in mathematics and computer science. This survey summarizes the current state-of-the-art of coin-tossing protocols in the full information model and recent advances in this field. In particular, it elaborates on a new proof technique that identifies the minimum insecurity incurred by any coin-tossing protocol and, simultaneously, constructs the coin-tossing protocol achieving that insecurity bound. The combinatorial perspective into this new proof-technique yields new coin-tossing protocols that are more secure than well-known existing coin-tossing protocols, leading to new isoperimetric inequalities over product spaces. Furthermore, this proof-technique's algebraic reimagination resolves several long-standing fundamental hardness-of-computation problems in cryptography. This survey presents one representative application of each of these two perspectives.