We show that one-way functions exist if and only if there exists an efficient distribution relative to which almost-optimal compression is hard on average. The result is obtained by combining a theorem of Ilango, Ren, and Santhanam [STOC 2022] and one by Bauwens and Zimand [JACM, 2023].

Some small improvements. Also several typos have been fixed.

We show that one-way functions exist if and only there exists an efficient distribution relative to which almost-optimal compression is hard on average. The result is obtained by combining a theorem of Ilango, Ren, and Santhanam [STOC 2022] and one by Bauwens and Zimand [JACM, 2023].