
366 Cryptography with Open-Source Software
Bob Carol
Alice
H
H H
Bob Carol
Alice
T
T H
FIGURE 14.1: The dining cryptographers.
where the operations are to be interpreted in their Boolean sense, and a result
of True means that o ne of the cryptog raphers is paying, and False means that
none of them are.
The protocol can be generalized to any number of cryptographers, and
instead of tossing coins they may produce a rando m bit, and state either the
XOR of the two bits on either side if they did not pay, and the opposite if they
did. The results can all be added (modulo 2), so tha t a result of 0 indicates
nobody paid, and a result of 1 means one of them did.