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I wonder: are there any real-world practical applications using the Paillier cryptosystem , as introduced in [1], or some derivations of it?

I'm aware of quite a few schemes proposed in literature how to use it for voting, zero-knowledge proofs and such, and also of many prototypical implementations online, but I can't seem to find any application where a Paillier(-based) scheme was effectively used...(also, I don't think there is any standard defining it).

[1] Paillier, Pascal (1999). "Public-Key Cryptosystems Based on Composite Degree Residuosity Classes". EUROCRYPT. Springer. pp. 223–238

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  • $\begingroup$ Well many people use a variant/generalization called the Damgard-Jurik cryptosystem, so you might try searching for that as well. $\endgroup$
    – pg1989
    Sep 15, 2015 at 17:14

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Yes, for example CryptDB uses the Paillier cryptosystem to implement homomorphic encryption for columns that require it. See CryptDB: Protecting Confidentiality with Encrypted Query Processing (pdf) for a description.

Whether you consider that use "effective" is another matter. Earlier this month there was a back and forth between the CryptDB developers and some Microsoft researchers who claimed to have several attacks on CryptDB. However, as far as I can tell they were on the other forms of encryption CryptDB uses.

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