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Foundations of Blockchain
book

Foundations of Blockchain

by Koshik Raj
January 2019
Beginner to intermediate
372 pages
11h 17m
English
Packt Publishing
Content preview from Foundations of Blockchain

Technical details of secp256k1

Bitcoin uses a specific elliptical curve, and the domain parameters used in the curve are defined in the secp256k1 standard. This curve is represented by the following cubic equation in a finite field of prime order p:

y2 mod (p) = x3 + 7 mod (p)

Figure 2.10: secp256k1's elliptic curve over real numbers

As the name suggests, secp256k1 can have a key size of up to 256 bits. The details of the domain parameters used by secp256k1 are represented in hexadecimal strings and are as follows:

  • Large prime numbers are used in the finite field.
    • p = FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFE FFFFFC2F ...
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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781789139396