Published on: 2014-07-19T07:03:35+00:00
In an email dated July 18, 2014, Richard Moore reached out for assistance in understanding the input signature script of a specific transaction with the ID tx 70f7c15c6f62139cc41afa858894650344eda9975b46656d893ee59df8914a3d. The timing of this request was opportune as there was an ongoing discussion regarding BIP0062, which was directly relevant to the issue at hand. This particular case serves as an illustration of how the lenient interpretation of invalid encoding in OpenSSL, a cryptographic library, can lead to unexpected normative rules within the Bitcoin ecosystem.It is worth noting that while more recent releases of Bitcoin core no longer relay or mine these types of transactions, they are still considered valid if they appear in blocks. To address this vulnerability, BIP62 proposes soft-forking changes that would enforce stricter limitations on DER encoding to eliminate any ambiguity. If network implementations were to adopt these changes, existing unusual transactions could be allowed to remain on a case-by-case basis, identified by their transaction IDs. Different implementations could utilize distinct DER decoding code without the risk of consensus inconsistencies, as long as they adhere to the functional equivalent of what BIP62 requires.Returning to Richard Moore's specific query, he is seeking guidance on how to obtain a positive value for the point P in the ECC library being utilized. It appears that the ECC library has encountered difficulty in verifying the point, which needs to have a positive value. The writer attempted to modify the point by applying a modulo curve.order operation, but unfortunately, this approach did not yield the desired outcome.Consequently, Richard Moore is requesting assistance in determining the proper method to acquire a positive value for point P, where Py = 0 and Py >= 0. Any guidance on this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Updated on: 2023-08-01T09:55:07.995291+00:00