Event Added Updated Guide
What owning a bitcoin actually means
Part 1 of the beginner guide. A bitcoin is not a coin sitting in an account — it behaves more like a receipt, unlocked by a key only you hold.
digital-signatures
Entries tagged with this topic. Spans across types and sources — explore connections between people, events, and themes.
9 entries
Event Added Updated Analysis
The day quantum computers break Bitcoin — will the world end?
Which Bitcoin assets are at risk from a cryptographically relevant quantum computer, and what the timeline and migration debate around post-quantum cryptography looks like.
Event Added Updated BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal)
BIP 340 — Schnorr Signatures for secp256k1
Schnorr signatures replacing ECDSA for Taproot. Provably secure, non-malleable, with efficient multi-signature aggregation — complex scripts become on-chain indistinguishable from simple payments.
Event Added Updated BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal)
BIP 146 — Dealing with signature encoding malleability
Fixes ECDSA signature malleability with two consensus rules: LOW_S, requiring the lower-half S value, and NULLFAIL, requiring failing signatures be empty byte arrays.
Event Added Updated BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal)
BIP 143 — Transaction Signature Verification for Version 0 Witness Program
New SegWit v0 signature-hash algorithm: commits to the input's spent amount, fixes O(n^2) quadratic hashing, and changes OP_CODESEPARATOR/FindAndDelete handling.
Event Added Updated BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal)
BIP 66 — Strict DER signatures
Restricts ECDSA signatures in Bitcoin scripts to strict DER encoding, removing OpenSSL's implicit role in consensus validity and reducing transaction malleability.
Event Added Updated Design Document
Bitcoin cryptography design — keys, signatures, hashes, and address derivation
How Bitcoin uses elliptic-curve keys, digital signatures, hash functions, and deterministic derivation to secure ownership without trusted third parties.
Event Added Updated Design Document
Bitcoin transaction design — UTXO model, Script, and signature schemes
Deep-dive into Bitcoin's transaction layer: UTXO lifecycle, transaction structure, Script evaluation, ECDSA and Schnorr signatures, SegWit, and Taproot.
Event Added Updated Mailing List 25 messages
"Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper" — Satoshi's first Bitcoin announcement (Oct 2008)
Satoshi clarifies Bitcoin uses Hashcash-style SHA-256 proof-of-work (not signatures), explains proportional mining chances, and addresses identity and double-spending prevention.