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Code-Based and Multivariate Post-Quantum: Assumption Diversity Beyond Lattices

The standardized KEM and leading signatures are almost all lattice- or hash-based. A single break in the lattice family would be catastrophic, which is exactly why NIST keeps non-lattice backups. This series is the honest tour of the code-based and multivariate alternatives - McEliece, HQC, BIKE, and the multivariate schemes - and what they cost. Grounded in the primary papers and the fourth-round status.

Murali Chillakuru·5 episodes
  1. 16 min Episode 1Why Assumption Diversity Matters: The Systemic Risk of a Single-Family BreakA moderator and a cryptography expert make the case for keeping non-lattice post-quantum schemes alive — why betting everything on one hard problem is a systemic risk, and why an independent backup is worth its real cost.
  2. 16 min Episode 2Code-Based Cryptography: Classic McEliece, Syndrome Decoding, and a Sixty-Year Track RecordA moderator and a cryptography expert build the oldest post-quantum family from scratch — error-correcting codes, the syndrome decoding problem, the McEliece trapdoor, and why fifty years of attack have only strengthened confidence in it, at the price of a very large key.
  3. 16 min Episode 3HQC and BIKE: Quasi-Cyclic Codes, the Backup-KEM Decision, and Decoding-Failure Trade-offsA moderator and a cryptography expert follow code-based cryptography from McEliece's megabyte key to the compact quasi-cyclic schemes HQC and BIKE — the structure that shrinks the key, the decryption-failure problem it introduces, and why HQC won the 2025 backup-KEM decision.
  4. 17 min Episode 4Multivariate Cryptography: The MQ Problem, Why Rainbow Fell, and What Still StandsA moderator and a cryptography expert examine the multivariate family — the MQ problem, the oil-and-vinegar trapdoor, the dramatic fall of Rainbow, and why what still stands offers tiny signatures at the price of a nervous, break-prone history.
  5. 16 min Episode 5When to Reach for a Non-Lattice Scheme: A Decision Framework over Size, Maturity, and RiskA moderator and a cryptography expert close the series with the decision framework — the axes that separate the non-lattice families, a flow for choosing among them, when to combine them, and how to build a crypto-agile portfolio for a long-lived agent.