# Why are there only positive value points on an elliptic curve?

I read about elliptic curve cryptography $E$ over $Z_p$ where $p$ is prime number and $G$ is a base point on the curve. I noticed the points resulting from multiplication e.g. $2G$,$3G$,.....,$(N-1)G$ are always be positive numbers for $x , y$ and don't contain any negative values.

Whats the reason for these results not containing any negative values?

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Actually, strictly speaking, the $x$ and $y$ values on an elliptic curve point aren't integers; instead, they are field elements. That is, the elliptic curve is defined in a field, which is a group of elements with addition and multiplication operations defined on them (along with a group of identities); the $x$ and $y$ values are members from these elements.

Now, you specify that you're doing a curve over $Z_p$; that field (often called $GF(p)$), which has precisely $p$ element, is most commonly represented by the integers between 0 and $p-1$. With this representation, we perform the addition and multiplication operations by taking the represention, adding or multiplying the two values together (using normal integer arithmetic), and then perform a modulo $p$ operation (which maps the value back into the range of 0 to $p-1$. If $p$ is prime, these operations satisfies all the required identifies of a field.

So, when you say that that points are always have positive numbers for $x, y$, what you're actually saying is that, using this standard representation, negative values never occur. That's trivially true because this representation only contains values between 0 and $p-1$, and never takes on negative values. We can easily define an alternative representation which does contain negative values; we just don't have any reason to.

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Thanks for the answer, but what this means then in NIST P-256 (csrc.nist.gov/groups/ST/toolkit/documents/dss/NISTReCur.pdf): b^2c = -27 (mod p) - page 5 – Oleg Gryb Apr 27 at 6:10
... or A = -3 mod p in tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5639 (page 6) – Oleg Gryb Apr 27 at 6:10
@OlegGryb: when talking about $Z/p$, the values $x$ and $x+p$ are considered "the same" (no matter what $x$ is). In this case, the value $A = -3$ is considered the same as $A = p-3$ (and $b^2c = -27$ is considered the same as $b^2c = p-27"). Now,$-3$is not the standard representation of that particular field element; however it can be considered a shorthand for that element. – poncho Apr 27 at 7:02 Thanks, I've figured out it already by doing some simple math shortly after I've asked the qs :) Another confusing moment for me was mirroring a point in adding points: (x_r, y_r) -> (x_r, - y_r), but I've figured it out as well. Probably I should add another answer, because it will be definitely confusing for others. – Oleg Gryb Apr 27 at 16:14 While it's true that integers are just monikers for a field Fp's elements and theoretically you can call these elements whatever you want, a common way of describing elements in standards and in popular implementations are still positive integers in the range 0:p-1. That's why seeing any negatives in documents can be confusing. Here are three cases that were confusing for me and I I think, they can be easily confusing for others as well. 1. In this NIST document csrc.nist.gov/groups/ST/toolkit/documents/dss/NISTReCur.pdf you can find a criterea for choosing coefficient 'b' formulated as follows:$b^2 \cdot c = -27 \pmod p$It doesn't mean that there should be anything negative on the left side of this equation. '-27' simply means p - 27 here You can confirm this e.g. by doing simple math for P-160 in calc: ; p=6277101735386680763835789423207666416083908700390324961279 ; c=0x3099d2bbbfcb2538542dcd5fb078b6ef5f3d6fe2c745de65 ; b=0x64210519e59c80e70fa7e9ab72243049feb8deecc146b9b1 ; b^2*c%p 6277101735386680763835789423207666416083908700390324961252 ; p-27 6277101735386680763835789423207666416083908700390324961252  2. In RFC-5639 you can find$A = -3 \pmod p$, which actually means$p-3\$ and you can confirm that using calc as well:

; p = 0xE95E4A5F737059DC60DFC7AD95B3D8139515620F
; a%p
1332297598440044874827085558802491743757193798156
; p-3
1332297598440044874827085558802491743757193798156

3. In EC points addition operator the last step is point mirroring over axis X and the most popular definition for that is:

(Xr,Yr) -> (Xr,-Yr)

Once again, it might not be clear what -Yr means here. It means a point, which is symmetric to Yr relatively to a median line parallel to the axis X. Where exactly that "median line" is located depends on a curve and its beta parameter. As you can see from the discussion below it's NOT necessary a median line for the Fp.

I'm sharing all that for those who are confused with all those negative numbers in EC arithmetic, just like I was. When I was googling for something like "elliptic curves negative numbers", this was the only page that I've found.

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where does that "- 0.5" come from? – lily wilson Jun 17 at 16:36
p is a prime, thus always odd and p/2 is exactly 0.5 higher than the median if your Y coordinate starts at 0, e.g. 3/2 = 1.5 and a median is 1 (1.5 - 0.5). I do realize that all numbers are integers in a prime field Fp, so it's all just to simplify the calculation of the median Y and to visualize the Fp that helps me to understand EC arithmetic better. – Oleg Gryb Jun 17 at 19:19
for your "axis X ... at ... p/2 - 0.5", -x = p - x - 1. on the curve y² = x³ + 7 with p = 2²⁵⁶ - 2³² - 977 (secp256k1), the points with x = 1 have y = 85895366384747149408010284714111852077055649506395260922968891100383188440129 and y = 29896722852569046015560700294576055776214335159245303116488692907525646231534. if you add these two y values together, you get 0 mod p, not -1 mod p. – lily wilson Jun 17 at 21:56
I was thinking about this today and realised that I couldn’t resolve a puzzle, because your example is absolutely correct and it means that your Y axis starts with 1, while mine starts with 0. The point symmetric to (1,0) is (1,p-1), right? But then it's (-1 mod p), not (0 mod p). We don't really need a curve to define symmetric points in Fp. What is wrong? Please explain. – Oleg Gryb Jun 18 at 6:05
Never mind, it's really simple - that median line for a curve can be shifted up or down depending on the coefficient beta, so it's different from the median line for Fp. I'll need to change the wording in the answer. – Oleg Gryb Jun 18 at 6:35