Author: Eric Lombrozo 2014-03-01 12:29:48
Published on: 2014-03-01T12:29:48+00:00
The author discusses the challenges in making HD keychain wallets usable from an application development perspective. The H in HD stands for hierarchical, but the author argues that existing implementations lack flexibility and usability. The issue lies in the lack of a clear separation between signing keys and hierarchical nodes. This makes it difficult to allocate keys correctly without creating confusion or a mess. The author suggests two possible solutions: 1) allocate a specific child for hierarchical derivation and the rest for signing keys, or 2) use a different mechanism for generating a sequence of signing keys from a given node. The latter solution would allow for a clear distinction between organizational hierarchy and signing keys, which is necessary for designing applications that can share these structures without risking confusion. Overall, the author argues that until this distinction is made, the H in HD keychains will remain underutilized.
Updated on: 2023-06-08T03:40:18.555399+00:00