Melting Pad: An Efficiently Decodable Coding Scheme for Information Theoretic Confidentiality

We introduce Melting Pad, an algebraic coding scheme with potentially strong information theoretic security. Melting Pad mixes n source data blocks into n + 1 protected data blocks, which can be decoded separately. Melting Pad supports flexible modes of secrecy, with either distinct secret keys protecting each source block, or one common secret key protecting all source blocks. It provides a lightweight approach to encrypting content for applications of wide dissemination or persistent storage, so that the content may be securely broadcast, hosted in untrusted storage, or hosted with diminished liability. Melting Pad's efficient decodability is derived from interference alignment concepts.