doc.go raw

   1  // Copyright (c) 2013-2014 The btcsuite developers
   2  // Copyright (c) 2015-2022 The Decred developers
   3  // Use of this source code is governed by an ISC
   4  // license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
   5  
   6  /*
   7  Package secp256k1 implements optimized secp256k1 elliptic curve operations in
   8  pure Go.
   9  
  10  This package provides an optimized pure Go implementation of elliptic curve
  11  cryptography operations over the secp256k1 curve as well as data structures and
  12  functions for working with public and private secp256k1 keys.  See
  13  https://www.secg.org/sec2-v2.pdf for details on the standard.
  14  
  15  In addition, sub packages are provided to produce, verify, parse, and serialize
  16  ECDSA signatures and EC-Schnorr-DCRv0 (a custom Schnorr-based signature scheme
  17  specific to Decred) signatures.  See the README.md files in the relevant sub
  18  packages for more details about those aspects.
  19  
  20  An overview of the features provided by this package are as follows:
  21  
  22    - Private key generation, serialization, and parsing
  23    - Public key generation, serialization and parsing per ANSI X9.62-1998
  24    - Parses uncompressed, compressed, and hybrid public keys
  25    - Serializes uncompressed and compressed public keys
  26    - Specialized types for performing optimized and constant time field operations
  27    - FieldVal type for working modulo the secp256k1 field prime
  28    - ModNScalar type for working modulo the secp256k1 group order
  29    - Elliptic curve operations in Jacobian projective coordinates
  30    - Point addition
  31    - Point doubling
  32    - Scalar multiplication with an arbitrary point
  33    - Scalar multiplication with the base point (group generator)
  34    - Point decompression from a given x coordinate
  35    - Nonce generation via RFC6979 with support for extra data and version
  36      information that can be used to prevent nonce reuse between signing
  37      algorithms
  38  
  39  It also provides an implementation of the Go standard library crypto/elliptic
  40  Curve interface via the S256 function so that it may be used with other packages
  41  in the standard library such as crypto/tls, crypto/x509, and crypto/ecdsa.
  42  However, in the case of ECDSA, it is highly recommended to use the ecdsa sub
  43  package of this package instead since it is optimized specifically for secp256k1
  44  and is significantly faster as a result.
  45  
  46  Although this package was primarily written for dcrd, it has intentionally been
  47  designed so it can be used as a standalone package for any projects needing to
  48  use optimized secp256k1 elliptic curve cryptography.
  49  
  50  Finally, a comprehensive suite of tests is provided to provide a high level of
  51  quality assurance.
  52  
  53  # Use of secp256k1 in Decred
  54  
  55  At the time of this writing, the primary public key cryptography in widespread
  56  use on the Decred network used to secure coins is based on elliptic curves
  57  defined by the secp256k1 domain parameters.
  58  */
  59  package secp256k1
  60