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Blockchain 101 – Elliptical Curve Cryptography

eng.paxos.com

78 points by altoz 8 years ago · 7 comments

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swordswinger12 8 years ago

The author incorrectly calling them "elliptical curves" is like nails on a chalkboard. An "elliptical" is an exercise machine or an adjective used to describe something shaped like an ellipse. The set of points in a field satisfying an equation of the form y^2 = x^3 + ax + b (which set, when enlarged to include the point at infinity and associated with the point addition group law, forms an abelian group) is an "elliptic curve".

  • ringaroundthetx 8 years ago

    Maybe they'll modify it.

    Paxos is an enterprise private blockchain snake oil company, but nobody there even knows it. When asked how they solve problems X, Y and Z, it turns out they have a blog article about how they haven't invented the solution yet. Tall order. Maybe commissions on their itBit exchange will keep them solvent enough to keep trying.

  • ranc1d 8 years ago

    They might have seen your comment, as it's since been updated.

nailer 8 years ago

This is an excellent and rare ECC primer in that it's aimed at software developers not mathematicians. I know what python looks like, whereas I don't know every mathematical symbol. Bookmarking.

  • moocowtruck 8 years ago

    weird i would have thought the other way around would be better... more people know maths than pythons

    • nailer 8 years ago

      Not at university level, where you'll get most of the symbols you'll see in a typical crypto primer.

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