MAYO is a multivariate signature built on the 'whipped' Oil-and-Vinegar construction. It produces very small public keys and signatures with extremely fast signing — well-suited to constrained / embedded devices.
Key parameters
spec snapshot- Hard problem
- Whipped UOV / MQ
- Public key size
- ≈ 1,168 B (MAYO-1)
- Signature size
- ≈ 321 B (MAYO-1)
- Sign cost
- < 0.5 ms on Cortex-M4
- NIST security levels
- I, III, V
NIST citations
3 sourcesRound timeline
5 events · 2023 → 2027- Round 1
Submission accepted
Included in the 40-candidate cohort for the additional-signatures on-ramp.
- Round 2
Advanced to Round 2
NIST selected 14 candidates for continued analysis (IR 8528).
- Round 3
Advanced to Round 3
Down-selected to 9 candidates for the final evaluation round.
- Round 2
Embedded benchmarks published
MAYO-1 signing in < 500µs on Cortex-M4 — best-in-class for IoT.
- Round 3
7th NIST PQC Standardization Conference
Scheduled late spring / early summer 2027, Gaithersburg, MD.
Source: NIST CSRC · IR 8610 (Round 3 advancement, May 14, 2026) · IR 8528 (Round 2 advancement, Oct 24, 2024).