Published on: 2011-11-21T11:48:20+00:00
On November 21, 2011, computer programmer Pieter Wuille sent an email requesting attention to a specific matter regarding client implementations. The exact nature of this matter was not specified in the email. However, Wuille provided a link to an address associated with a compressed public key, although it is unclear how this compressed public key relates to the issue at hand.A pull request (#649) has been made to enable the use of compressed public keys in Bitcoin. These compressed keys are 33 bytes long and only contain the X coordinate of the point. The value of the Y-coordinate is reconstructed when needed, which requires some CPU but is significantly cheaper than verifying a signature. To avoid confusion, this implementation selects only one address from the two possible addresses generated by a single private key corresponding to two public keys for compressed pubkeys at key generation time.According to roconnor on IRC, old clients should have no issues verifying and relaying these compressed public keys, as they are supported by default by OpenSSL. All alternative implementations that use OpenSSL should also support them. However, it is still unknown if all client implementations fully support compressed public keys.Another aspect that needs to be addressed is the representation of secrets for compressed pubkeys. This remains an unresolved issue.Lastly, there is a need to test send-to-pubkey transactions, as they have not been tested yet and require attention.In summary, Pieter Wuille raised a matter in 2011 about client implementations without specifying the exact issue. He provided a link to a compressed public key, but its relevance to the matter is unclear. A pull request has been made to enable the use of compressed public keys in Bitcoin, with the implementation choosing one address from two possible addresses generated by a single private key. It is uncertain if all client implementations fully support compressed public keys. Additionally, the representation of secrets for compressed pubkeys remains unresolved, and send-to-pubkey transactions require testing.
Updated on: 2023-08-01T02:40:01.495719+00:00