Questions tagged [cryptography]

Concerning the broad subject of cryptography and its narrow application in Bitcoin protocol and applications.

Concerning the broad subject of cryptography and its narrow application in Bitcoin protocol and applications.

295 questions
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What exactly is generator G in Bitcoin's elliptical curve algorithm?

What exactly is the generator G in elliptical curve math? It is typically described as a point on the curve. Is this a tuple of values? What properties does it have?
Eric S
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Address Public Private key verification

Apologies if this question has been asked before, but when a bitcoin client wishes to send funds to an address, does the bitcoin protocol force the client to verify that the address has a corresponding private key? For example, I am given an…
Charles Hoskinson
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what is a discrete logarithmic assumption? how does it set-up trustless proofs?

pending proposal of bulletproofs as a zk proof for confidential transactions relies on fiat-shamir heuristic to be non-interactive via creating a digital signature on interactive proof of knowledge and as cited in [bootle, wuille, maxwell et al]…
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Bitcoin's Cryptographic Integrity

A few people I know compare bitcoin and gold regarding currencies with integrity; Martin Armstrong on Zero Hedge compared both in a recent post. One advantage I currently see that bitcoin has over gold is the cost to verify is much lower; it costs…
user541852587
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Ed25519 Successor to ECDSA in Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is currently using the secp256k1 curve. Understand that Ed25519 is technically superior -- i.e., offers better security than ECDSA and DSA, speed and most importantly, I think, resistance against side-channel attacks. Sia, Scorex,…
Nathan Aw
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The compressed public key byte header

I've noticed that compressed public keys are always either 0x02 or 0x03, but what exactly determines whether it's 0x02 or 0x03? I can go look at the OpenSSL code to answer this, but I'm hoping someone already knows the answer and can tell me :P
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How does bitcoin work from a technical computer science cryptography perspective?

How does the cryptography science behind bitcoins work to make it robust(reliable , scalable). I am interested in technical explanation with cryptography math and not just conceptual explanation.
Ali
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What is the current computing speed of performing an elliptic curve multiplication?

Hi I was just looking for some information on how long it would take to crack a private key in bitcoin using a brute force approach and I couldn't find a very good answer for how long it takes to check whether one specific key (or every key) would…
Matt
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24 Hour price change Mean

If a currency price is showing ABC per coin and its price % is +X% or -X% then this reference is taken from which last price i.e. which point of time the price is taken
Adil
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BTC transfer duration

When BTC is mined, it is sent to the BTC wallet. The duration of the transaction can be up to 24h for online wallets. Is the duration faster, when transferring BTC to a “cold wallet”?
Martin
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Correct breakdown of the name of secp256k1?

sec Standards for Efficient Cryptography 256 256bit prime k1 Koblitz curve no. 1 ?
Fuji
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Is there a single point generator G for every elliptic curve?

I understand that G is a point on curve which holds true for y^2 = x^3 + ax + b. But there can be several other points as well which holds true for above equation but how do we choose which one is our G?
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Could a network described below function and how well?

I have an idea I am working on for some time, it would be using blockchain technology. However, although I know something about blockchain as it stands today, I am lacking a more deepened knowledge about cryptographic primitives. So, because I…
user84415
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What is the difference between digital signature and a digital fingerprint?

I've been reading the book, Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas M. Antonopoulos, in chapter 4, the cryptography used in bitcoin is classified as: keys, bitcoin addresses and digital signatures. I understand the keys come in pairs of private and…
Ang
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Difference between cryptography in cryptocurrency hardware wallet and 2FA hardware security key

What's the general overview of difference between the way how cryptocurrency hardware wallet works and how hardware security key (used for 2FA) works?
bridgemnc
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