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Location is rapidly becoming the next "killer application" as location-enabled mobile handheld devices proliferate. One class of applications that has yet-to-emerge are those in which users have an incentive to lie about their location. These applications cannot rely solely on the users' devices to discover and transmit location information because users have an incentive to cheat. Instead, such applications require their users to prove their locations. Unfortunately, today's mobile users lack a mechanism to prove their current or past locations. Consequently, these applications have yet to take off despite their potential.

This paper presents location proofs - a simple mechanism that enables the emergence of mobile applications that require "proof" of a user's location. A location proof is a piece of data that certifies a receiver to a geographical location. Location proofs are handed out by the wireless infrastructure (e.g., a Wi …