Big Step Toward Scalability And Privacy
Recently we heard about Schnorr improvements proposals, that will bring:
- Largest Code "Consensus" Change since Segregated Witness (SegWit)
- New digital signature scheme to generate the cryptographic keys they need to used to store / send bitcoins.
- Extra benefits for privacy and scalability, two most worrisome problems.
Mathematically speaking it is about using 64-byte Schnorr signatures over the elliptic curve secp256k1, instead of ECDSA signatures over the secp256k1 curve for authenticating transactions.
Power Of Schnorr Signature Over ECDSA Signatures:
- Security proof: The security of Schnorr signatures is easily provable in the random oracle model assuming the elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem (ECDLP) is hard. Such a proof does not exist for ECDSA.
- Non-malleability: ECDSA signatures are inherently malleable. a third party without access to the private key can alter an existing valid signature for a given public key and message into another signature that is valid for the same key and message. Refer To BIP62. On the other hand, Schnorr signatures are provably non-malleable.
- Linearity: Schnorr signatures have the remarkable property that multiple parties can collaborate to produce a signature that is valid for the sum of their public keys.
SegWit was the last code change "consensus" change made to bitcoin, sparking a debate so big, those who disagreed with the change split off and created their own cryptocurrency with SegWit removed.
As per now, It looks there are less detractors than there was for SegWit
You never know, we will have to wait and see