Questions tagged [cryptocurrency]
A cryptocurrency is a digital currency powered by cryptography. This tag is applicable only to Q&As about the cryptographic mechanisms used by a currency, not for questions about economy, usage, or acquisition of any particular currency. Please note that Stackexchange has dedicated websites for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero, etc.
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1answer
67 views
Block chain and storage issues
On reading about block chain technology, it was observed that it leverages the distributed ledger technology through P2P, here integrity is ensured through hash computed by miners, and then is ...
0
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1answer
35 views
Question on using endomorphism on secp256k1 and negative results
I have read section 3.5 (algorithm 3.7) in "Guide to Elliptic Curve Cryptography", and have been trying to implement endomorphism on secpt256k1 to speed up calculating $kP$ by changing it into 2 point ...
2
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1answer
139 views
Can you tell me why doing scalar multiplication of a point on a Elliptic curve over a finite field gets to a point at infinity?
I am reading Programming Bitcoin. The author said:
Another property of scalar multiplication is that at a certain multiple, we get to the point at infinity (remember, the point at infinity is the ...
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0answers
37 views
Why is ethereum not using threshold signatures like dfinity for randomness? What's the drawback?
So Ethereum goes for RANDAO. The disadvantage with RANDAO is that the last validator in the commit-reveal scheme is able to hold his contributed value back and thereby influence the random outcome. ...
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0answers
34 views
Explanation of Gallant-Lambert-Vanstone method / Endomorphism speedups [duplicate]
Can someone explain how the Gallant-Lambert-Vanstone method works (or which literature explains it)?
It is also unclear to me how the Frobenius endomorphism can be used in some cases for a speedup.
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0answers
35 views
Speed of Elliptic Curve multiplication
Say we have an elliptic curve, as I am studying around bitcoin we will say it is their standard secp256k1, with our generator point $P$, and I want to calculate $Q=kP$.
Using the double-and-add ...
3
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2answers
139 views
Does secp256k1 have any known weaknesses?
I am wondering whether there are any properties of the curve which would technically make it easier to attack than any other curves of 256 bits in size.
I have heard that being a Koblitz curve, it ...
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0answers
54 views
Concrete examples / tutorials of how blockchain/bitcoin works
I want to understand the crypto details behind the blockchain (at least in the form that bitcoin implements it).
Can you point me to some page or documents that show the details with examples?
I ...
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1answer
78 views
In cryptocurrency they use Secp256k curve. Can someone generate private key with different curve?
A lot of cryptocurrencies is using Secp256k1 (for example: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Secp256k1).
Every cryptocurrency library comes with its own redundant implementation of Secp256k1, ECDSA, ...
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0answers
22 views
Time-locked deposit protocol?
I am designing a protocol where a user A sends a time-locked deposit to user that if the user B within time t provide a proof that he exists in a location x (this may be obtained by third party like ...
-1
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1answer
124 views
How does Diffie Hellman protocol work in Bitcoin Blockchain Transactions?
Greetings to all! Please explain how the Diffie-Hellman protocol works in Bitcoin?
That is, in Blockchain Transactions, there is also a total number of "K" recipient and sender?
"K" the recipient and ...
3
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1answer
139 views
Do I need to provide entropy to secp256k1_ecdsa_sign() ?
using secp256k1_ecdsa_sign() I noticed the same data signed multiple times, coming back with the same signature. I always thought that signatures are different because random data is somehow involved....
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1answer
98 views
Does the One-Time Hash-based Signature Scheme render Ring Signatures useless?
On the Bitcoin community, to maintain privacy, they recommend using one-time spend addresses. CryptoNote, Monero et al. prefer Ring Signatures to maintain that privacy. There are some issues regarding ...
1
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1answer
80 views
Blockchain without cryptography
Because blockchain is decentralized, what would happen if there was no cryptography anymore to protect the blockchain? I know it would not be used anymore but why? "Hackers" could reverse transactions ...
0
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1answer
105 views
How might one create a system of election by lot (sortition) that is both secure and verifiable?
I've been puzzling recently over sortition, a democratic method of selection for public office which I find very fascinating. Basically, instead of choosing candidates like Hillary Clinton or Donald ...
3
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2answers
84 views
Post-quantum SNARGs with near-constant verification?
We're building a private computation platform similar to Zexe, where nested proofs are used to preserve the privacy of the programs being computed. We may use different proof systems for the inner and ...
0
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1answer
40 views
Economically Rational as a security proof
Is it possible to prove the security of a cryptocurrency payment protocol by saying that the actors will seek to maximize their profits. Would I need to set this up as a game and prove it that way or ...
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2answers
89 views
The use of Elliptic Curves as part of a blockchain transaction
As I understand it, Elliptic-Curve Cryptography is used in the verification step of a transaction (i.e. when creating a digital signature), but not in the creation and security of a 'block' (when ...
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0answers
18 views
Can the precompiles in Ethereum Byzantium for pairings be used for implementation of BBS group signature verification?
I'm currently implementing a group signature verification on Ethereum and it seems that the Pairing check can only return a boolean.
According to the BBS algorithm, to validate a signature $s$, you ...
3
votes
3answers
291 views
Why is it impossible to find the private key from the public key?
From what I understand, based on the article A Beginner’s Guide: Private and Public Key Cryptography Deciphered, the public key is generated by performing $n$ tangent plus mirroring operations from ...
0
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0answers
53 views
ChaCha20 - How confidentiality is lost if reusing nonce? [duplicate]
I read that (key, nonce) pair should be used only once for encryption of a message. My question is how confidentiality can be lost if two peers using a shared key use same (key, nonce) pair to encrypt ...
3
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1answer
93 views
POW with Linear time to solve it?
Any suggestions for A Proof-of-Work algorithm in literature so that the time required for solving it is linear with the puzzle difficulty ??
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0answers
42 views
Can I use a blockchain to lock access to some information before a certain amount of time has passed, without relying on third-parties?
Picture the following (the example is very similar to the real scenario):
I have a physical item in possession in which I want to lock myself (don't ask [1]) from accessing it until a ...
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1answer
85 views
How do I convert KECCAK-256 to FLOPS? (Ethereum)
I wanted to know how much one Ethereum KECCAK-256(hash) is in FLOPS. I know bitcoin is 12,697 flops per hash.
0
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1answer
210 views
Half of any bitcoin (crypto) public key - (public key half) is possible
I found a topic on bitcointalk
Public key x and y == Double(Half of the Public key x and y)
half any public key is possible how that possible , in crypto there is subtraction and multiplication ...
3
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1answer
61 views
Are there known special cases where the first 160 bits of keccak256 can be null ? Or does finding a collision is required?
In the Tronix contract code (a large ICO listed on many exchanges) lies this modifier which is used for all token transfers :
...
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1answer
76 views
Does an anonymous signature hide the sender's identity from the receiver?
Does an anonymous signature hide the sender's identity from the receiver, or simply just hide the sender's identity from an eavesdropper or third party?
1
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1answer
380 views
ECDSA vulnerability related to recovering private key using same r
I'm considering this for bitcoin transaction as it uses ECDSA so if the signer generates two signatures suppose s1 and s2.
where:
I get it that any attacker who have s1 and s2 can recover its private ...
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2answers
245 views
Could RSA keypairs be used for cryptocurrency addresses?
A bitcoin address is created from an ECDSA keypair. It is common to use use a hashed version of the public key as the shared address, but the original bitcoin implementation also allowed for using the ...
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votes
1answer
248 views
ECC private key generation collision
I am generating ECC private keys. however I noticed that since ECC private key is just a BigInteger. e.g. spec256k1 says private key is anywhere between [0~2^256-1]....
3
votes
1answer
51 views
How to decrypt using public key?
Can anyone decrypt ciphertext using a public key? I always thought we can only decrypt using a private key. In that case, what does this line in the RLPx documentation mean?
...
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2answers
144 views
Zencash uses your passphrase to identify AND unlock a wallet - how is this secure?
When looking into Zencash I stumbled into myzenwallet.io (by the Zencash creators), which gives you the option to enter a passphrase to generate a wallet (seems normal), but then after creating your ...
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1answer
180 views
Basic question on interaction with HSM using PKCS11
I am a beginner on cryptography, I've been reading about PKCS11 and usage of PKCS11 on HSM's
I understand the concept of HSM,
I read about the HD wallets in bitcoin how keys are hashed and combined ...
0
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1answer
42 views
A method to receive payments at obscured addresses [closed]
The background:
We assume that coin ownership and payments are recorded on a public ledger.
Suppose Alice wants to publish some information to let her receive coins from anyone.
But she does not want ...
4
votes
2answers
122 views
Why won't a BFT protocol using simple signing/voting work?
PBFT and most consensus algorithms are more complicated than a simple voting scheme. By simple voting I mean the following: we require all nodes to sign their local copy of the state and send this ...
1
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2answers
60 views
How does `d-KCA` help secure the zcash protocol?
I have been going back and forth between part 2 and part 4 of the Explaining SNARKs series.
In part 2, it is claimed that Bob has an idea about the polynomial and want to test whether Alice knows it ...
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1answer
49 views
Paper wallet QR codes
What is the purpose for and distinction between each of the following keys commonly used in cryptocurrencies?
Address
Tracking key
Passphrase
Private key
For context:
I got a bytecoin paper wallet ...
2
votes
3answers
143 views
Is that possible to prove that 'I do not know something' (i.e, the private key for a Bitcoin wallet) using cryptography?
Is that possible to prove that 'I do not know something' (i.e, the private key for a cryptocurrency wallet) using cryptography?
The problem might be nonsense at first glance. But the intuition for ...
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1answer
125 views
Revealing vote after time
Imagine we have 5 different parties, all of these parties test if a particular thing is true or false over the course of 24 hours. The network needs to come to a consensus about the majority outcome ...
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2answers
650 views
Probability last character sha256 hash
A quick question. I want to use the last character of a SHA256 hash (blockhash of a bitcoin block) as my random source. Is 100 /16(amount of different chars) = 6.25% true for all characters or are ...
0
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1answer
195 views
Signature Aggregation / Multi-Signature
I want to save the space signatures take up in a block of Bitcoin transactions. To simplify it, here is the general transaction structure in a block:
message
public key
signature of the message
...
2
votes
2answers
3k views
How insecure is AES-128-CTR to encrypt any kind of data using the Ethereum keystore file format?
I am using the Ethereum keystore file format to encrypt any other data such a plain text or JSON.
Here is an example of pseudocode of the implementation:
...
0
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1answer
291 views
Is my AES-128-CTR implementation secure enough to encrypt private keys and mnemonic seed? [closed]
I am building a cryptocurrency wallet online where everything is stored in the browser (No servers).
At this moment I am storing all private keys encrypted using AES-128-CTR I've chosen this method ...
0
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1answer
63 views
Do I need to use HMAC in this crypto wallet backup application?
I'm building an application for securely backing up cryptocurrency private keys or 12-word backup phrases that crypto wallets use as a seed to generate private keys. For the purpose of this question, ...
1
vote
1answer
109 views
Use of cryptographic hash for computing previous block hashes in blockchains
Why is the previous block hash computed using a cryptographic hash function instead of a regular hash function in Bitcoin and other blockchains?
What cryptographic hash properties (pre-image ...
2
votes
1answer
255 views
Cryptocurrency for quantum computers that is physically impossible to double-spend?
Could a cryptocurrency running (at least partially) on a quantum computer (and/or on a quantum network) be developed in which it is physically impossible to double-spend? In other words, a coin in ...
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4answers
991 views
Optimized modular multiplicative inverse for Bitcoin (secp256k1)
I have written an application to brute-force attack Bitcoin addresses for OpenCL. It implements a simple exhaustive search starting from public key G (private key 1) and point increment (addition of G)...
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votes
1answer
148 views
Someone discover two pair privkey for one address
I have a question about bitcoin privkey:
If you have TWO pair privkey(compressed and uncompressed) I wrote again TWO pair, yes i know, many person say - it is not possible, but...
And this works ...
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0answers
98 views
Reconciling Multiple Blockchains?
I'm playing around with the idea of a blockchain where both the proof-of-work and verification steps are NP-hard. It seems the NP-hard verification step can be resolved if you allow for multiple ...
3
votes
2answers
191 views
Lack of usage of secrets in ZK Bitcoin ownership proof
I read the paper "Provisions: Privacy-preserving proofs of solvency
for Bitcoin exchanges" which is available for download on http://crypto.stanford.edu/~dabo/pubs/abstracts/provisions.html and have ...
