Performance comparison between ECDSA and BLS signature schemes

Question

I want to choose an efficient signature scheme for implementation on a lightweight MCU. I was wondering how does the performance of ECDSA and BLS signature schemes compare in terms of signing time and signature size, etc.?

Answer 1

In fact it depends on various factors:

1. Which curves and which level of security is your target?
2. Which algorithms do you most frequently use key generation, signing, or verification?
3. Which microcontroller is your target?
4. Which compiler do you use?

But generally, based on ECRYPT Benchmarking of Asymmetric Systems report on March 2007 performed on x86, 2400MHz, Intel Pentium 4 (page. 164-165):

(ecdonald is an implementation of ECDSA and compared values are in CPU cycles)

BLS signing algorithm is faster than ECDSA-256 but it is slower in key generation and verification.

Answer 2

Found this article that seems to answer your question: https://www.dash.org/blog/bls-is-it-really-that-slow/