2018-01-06 13:41:04 +00:00
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# Asymmetric cryptography used in Monero
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!!! danger
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2018-01-09 13:33:55 +00:00
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Author is nowhere close to being a cryptographer. Be sceptical on accuracy.
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2018-01-06 13:41:04 +00:00
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2018-01-07 16:47:12 +00:00
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Before we get to Monero specific stuff, a little bit of context. We are talking asymmetric cryptography here.
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2018-01-06 13:41:04 +00:00
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The "asymmetric" simply means the are two keys:
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* the private key (used primarily for signing data and for decrypting data)
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* the public key (used primarily for signature verification and encrypting data)
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This is in contrast to symmetric cryptography which uses a single (secret) key.
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Historically, asymmetric cryptography was based on the problem of factorization of a very large integers
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back into prime numbers (which is practically impossible for large enough integers).
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Recently, asymmetric cryptography is based on a mathematical notion of elliptic curves.
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Ed25519 is a specific, well researched and standardized elliptic curve used in Monero.
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