This book, the second volume in the DIMACS book series and published jointly with the Association for Computing Machinery, contains the proceedings of a workshop held in Princeton, New Jersey, in October 1989. The workshop, which drew seventy-four participants from five countries, addressed a wide range of practical and theoretical questions arising in the overlap of distributed computation and cryptography. In addition to fifteen papers based on formal talks presented at the workshop, this volume also contains two contributed papers on related topics, and an extensive summary of informal discussions that took place during the workshop, including some open questions raised.

The book requires basic background in computer science and either a familiarity with the notation and terminology of distributed computing and cryptography, or a willingness to do some background reading. Students, researchers, and engineers interested in the theoretical and practical aspects of distributed computing and cryptography will appreciate the overview the book provides.