Attractive Subfamilies of BLS Curves for Implementing High-Security Pairings

Barreto-Lynn-Scott (BLS) curves are a stand-out candidate for implementing high-security pairings. This paper shows that particular choices of the pairing-friendly search parameter give rise to four subfamilies of BLS curves, all of which offer highly efficient and implementation friendly pairing instantiations.

Curves from these particular subfamilies are defined over prime fields that support very efficient towering options for the full extension field. The coefficients for a specific curve and its correct twist are automatically determined without any computational effort. The choice of an extremely sparse search parameter is immediately reflected by a highly efficient optimal ate Miller loop and final exponentiation. As a resource for implementors, we give a list with examples of implementation-friendly BLS curves through several high-security levels.