International Association
for Cryptologic Research

In Fall 2021, the president of Museums Moving Forward (MMF) approached us, cryptographers at Boston University, about using MPC to support one of their new projects. In this talk, we will share the story of the resulting deployment of MPC for social good. While our talk will cover the technical details of features we developed in the web-based JIFF framework in response to MMF’s needs, our primary focus will be the lessons that we learned about deploying MPC for social good throughout the process. Working collaboratively across disciplinary boundaries required developing shared language, bridging epistemological gaps, and designing new MPC features on the fly to recover from mistakes. Our goal is to uncover the messiness that usually gets suppressed in technical write-ups of cryptographic deployments. Understanding these pitfalls is critical for the continued growth of MPC and indispensable for cryptographers developing working relationships with non-technical stakeholder groups.