Schnorr Signatures and Libsec256k1 - NADO 9

Schnorr signature support was merged into the libsec256k1 library last week. In the episode of The Van Wirdum Sjorsnado, Aaron and Sjors discuss what the libsecp256k1 library is, why it matters for Bitcoin, and what it means that Schnorr signature support was merged. Sjors also briefly explains what he ultimate send RPC is, his own pull request that was recently merged into Bitcoin Core as well.

Helpful Links:

The Power of Schnorr:

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/the-power-of-schnorr-the-signature-algorithm-to-increase-bitcoin-s-scale-and-privacy-1460642496

Chapters

00:00:00 The send RPC, PSBTs and hardware-wallet integration

00:03:57 Schnorr support arrives in libsecp256k1

00:04:54 What is a software library?

00:05:50 Bitcoin dependence on OpenSSL

00:08:59 Signature parsing, BIP66 and consensus dependencies

00:12:28 A dedicated Bitcoin signature library

00:15:13 Reviewing cryptographic code and sharing the library

00:17:45 Implementing Schnorr on the same elliptic curve

00:20:07 Merged code, releases and eventual Taproot activation

00:23:01 Why Schnorr signatures are useful

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