Special Subsets of Addresses for Blockchains Using the secp256k1 Curve

【Author】 Di Scala, Antonio J.; Gangemi, Andrea; Romeo, Giuliano; Vernetti, Gabriele

【Source】MATHEMATICS

【影响因子】2.592

【Abstract】In 2020, Sala, Sogiorno and Taufer were able to find the private keys of some Bitcoin addresses, thus being able to spend the cryptocurrency linked to them. This was unexpected since the recovery of non-trivial private keys for blockchain addresses is deemed to be an infeasible problem. In this paper, we widen this analysis by mounting a similar attack on other small subsets of the set of private keys. We then apply it to other blockchains as well, examining Ethereum, Dogecoin, Litecoin, Dash, Zcash and Bitcoin Cash. In addition to the results, we also explain the techniques we have used to perform this exhaustive search for all the addresses that have ever appeared in these blockchains, and we give an estimate of the time needed to perform all the computations. Finally, we also examine the possibility of mounting a similar attack on other elliptic curves used in blockchains, i.e., Curve25519 and NIST P-256.

【Keywords】cryptography; blockchain; Bitcoin; elliptic curves; subsets analysis; addresses; wallet

【发表时间】2022 AUG

【收录时间】2022-08-28

【文献类型】实验仿真

【主题类别】

区块链技术-核心技术-加密算法