Author: Chris Pacia 2014-11-08 18:43:48
Published on: 2014-11-08T18:43:48+00:00
The email thread discusses the recent developments in the space of decentralized 2-factor Bitcoin wallets. Two new projects, Bitcoin Authenticator and the DSA 2-of-2 signing protocol by MacKenzie and Reiter, have been introduced that run on desktop/laptop with an Android app to go along with them. These wallets require compromise of both devices for any kind of compromise. Bitcoin Authenticator has a variety of features like OneName integration and is currently in alpha but expected to be quite popular once released due to its focus on UI and a simple mobile security model. The DSA 2-of-2 signing protocol by MacKenzie and Reiter has downsides that are well known. To solve this problem, Christopher Mann and Daniel Loebenberger from Uni Bonn have ported the efficient DSA 2-of-2 signing protocol by MacKenzie and Reiter to ECDSA and implemented their own desktop/Android wallet app pair showing that it works and has good enough performance. Their protocol uses an interesting combination of ECDSA, Paillier homomorphic encryption, and some zero-knowledge proofs to build a working solution for the 2-of-2 case only. Currently, neither of these projects implement support for BIP70. Support for sending a full payment request between devices is the clear next step once these wallets have obtained a reasonable user base and are stable.
Updated on: 2023-06-09T14:11:16.324477+00:00