ANDOS

In cryptography, ANDOS is an acronym for All Or Nothing Disclosure of Secrets.

ANDOS is a two-party protocol introduced in 1986 by Brassard, Crepeau and Robert (BCR87).

In cryptography, two party protocols have a goal of creating a way for two parties to share secret information without the receiving party being able to gain any additional information about other secrets the sending party has.

A famous example of this is two millionaires trying to figure out who is richer without sharing how much money they actually have.

Related Terms

Cryptography

Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication from outside observers. It’s taking information, concealing the real meaning of that information from everyone else, then sending that secret message to another party, and allowing that party to reveal the secret message using a special key

Peer-to-Peer (P2P)

Describes the sharing of data or assets between 2 or more parties without any central authority making the transaction happen. P2P exchanges tend to offer transactions that are censorship resistant, cheap, private, and secure.

Anonymity

It keeps your identity hidden, you stay anonymous, and allows you to send or receive digital assets with anyone that has a crypto wallet address, anywhere in the world, without a middle man like a bank to question what you’re sending, how much you’re sending, to whom you’re sending it and why.

Plaintext

Information that’s unencrypted, waiting to be sent or transmitted to another party. Plaintext is the input given to a cryptographic algorithm, such as an encryption algorithm, which then encodes data into ciphertext. The ciphertext is the message transmitted to the receiving party.

Desktop Wallet

A common type of crypto wallet used to securely store and manage your private keys on a computer hard drive. They’re considered more secure than web-based wallets, since you can only access them from wherever your computer is located, and again, you control your private keys.