The Levchin Prize for real-world cryptography is a prize given to people or organizations who are recognized for contributions to cryptography that have a significant impact on its practical use.
The recipients are selected by the steering committee of the Real World Crypto (RWC) academic conference run by the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR) and announced at the RWC conference.
[1] The award was established in 2015 by Max Levchin, a software engineer and businessman who co-founded the financial technology company PayPal, and first awarded in January 2016.
While there is no formal rule, as of 2024 one of the two awards has recognized one or more individuals for theoretical advancements to cryptographic methods with a practical impact, while the other has recognized one or more individuals or an organization for either the construction of practical systems or practical advancements in cryptanalysis.
The following table lists the recipients of the Levchin Prize.