Circ: grand: enabling the next generation of cryptographic computing with cryptolets

Award Details: The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded $3.8 million under the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CFDA 47.070) program to New York University on October 1, 2025, for the Cryptolets project, with completion targeted for September 30, 2029. This cooperative agreement funds the development of hardware and software infrastructure to accelerate cryptographic computing—computation on encrypted data that provides enhanced privacy and security but currently suffers from significant performance limitations on existing processors.

Products and Services: The Cryptolets initiative delivers three integrated components: (1) an open-source hardware library of key operators and kernels (modular multiplication, number theoretic transform, multi-scalar multiplication) and protocol accelerators for fully homomorphic encryption and related cryptographic schemes; (2) development infrastructure including automated hardware tooling scripts and chiplet interfaces to enable researchers to decompose complex designs into smaller, manageable chips; and (3) validation and verification tooling encompassing formal verification, side-channel testing, and test vectors. The project incorporates significant educational outreach through recorded lectures on cryptographic computing fundamentals, hardware design, chiplets, formal verification, and benchmarking, complemented by community workshops and online events. Sub-awardees include the Research Foundation of the City University of New York (focused on benchmarking infrastructure for fully homomorphic encryption and zero-knowledge proofs across artificial intelligence, blockchain, and genomics applications) and Stanford University (responsible for formal verification methodologies and physical design infrastructure using industry-standard electronic design automation tools).

Abstract

An emerging form of data processing named cryptographic computing enables computation on encrypted data, providing unprecedented levels of privacy and security. However, these techniques are not widely used today as they run very slowly on existing processors and hardware. This project will implement the infrastructure needed to enable researchers to develop new hardware designs that can overcome these performance limitations and enable cryptographic computing. Throughout this project, named cryptolets, the team will implement the hardware and software needed to accelerate core cryptographic computing functions in hardware, the infrastructure to connect these pieces, and software to validate IT. Cryptolets will focus on three intertwined efforts. First, IT will implement and open source a hardware library of key operators and kernels used in cryptographic computing (e.g., modular multiplication, number theoretic transform, and multi-scalar multiplication), and prototypes of existing full protocol accelerators (e.g., homomorphic encryption). Second, IT will develop infrastructure needed to connect and build chips. This includes automated scripts to run necessary hardware tools and chiplet interfaces. Since cryptographic computing kernels are complex and large, cryptolets provides users the ability to break designs into smaller chips and connect them. Third, IT will provide tooling support for formal verification, testing for side-channels, and test vectors for validation. Cryptolets will develop suites of educational resources and conduct numerous community building events to advance cryptographic computing. First, the cryptolets team will develop, record, and release lectures on the fundamentals of cryptographic computing, hardware for cryptographic computing, chiplets, formal verification, and benchmarking. Community building exercises will be done via workshops and online events for experts and newcomers across disciplines to connect. Finally, by releasing cryptolets infrastructure, the barrier to entry is significantly lowered. Coupled with education and community building activities, the research community is expected to grow markedly. All aspects of the project (e.g., code, lectures, slides, and papers) will be made publicly available for all to access and use. All cryptolet material and code can be found on the website: cryptolets.ORG. Websites and repositories are expected to be hosted indefinitely. In addition, archival records of the cryptolets project (e.g., code, data, reports) will be taken and uploaded at the midway (end of year 2) and final (end of year 4) phases of the project. This will provide a permanent and open backup on the internet for all to access. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.- subawards are not planned for this award.