On July 5, 2022, the American National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) determined which post-quantum mechanisms are subject to standardization.

The key encapsulation scheme, or KEM, (read Diffie-Hellman replacement) is CRYSTALS-Kyber. The complexity of this mechanism is based on difficult lattice problems.

Three schemes are chosen as a digital signature:

CRYSTALS-Dilithium (ideological counterpart of CRYSTALS-Kyber), also on bars,

FALCON, another signature on the bars. Differs from the previous construction paradigm (how RSA differs from ECDSA),

SPHINCS+, a modification of Lamport's signature.

In addition, in the so-called fourth round (from which, according to NIST, at least one more scheme will be selected),

BIKE, a key encapsulation scheme based on the difficulty of decoding "random" quasi-cyclic codes,

HQC, a key encapsulation scheme based on the difficulty of decoding "random" quasi-cyclic codes (the difference with BIKE is in the properties of the code check matrix),

Classic McEliece, a key encapsulation scheme based on the difficulty of decoding "random" binary codes,

SIKE, a key encapsulation scheme based on the difficulty of calculating isogeny.

Details on the standardization process and selected schemes can be found in the NIST report.

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