ED25519 Signature: Upping the Ante

Introduction

Security has always been a key concern in businesses and communications. To protect data and transactions, different ways to sign digital correspondence and transactions were devised over the years. Notable among these methods were RSA, DSA, and ECDSA. Through evolution, these ways kept on getting better. Blockchain and cryptocurrencies are all the more prone to hackers and attackers, so exchanges started implementing the best digital signature option, and it was none other than ED25519.

What is ED25519?

Based on Edward Curve, ED25519 is a modern, fast and highly secure tool to signature digital transaction and messages. It is asymmetric in nature. It means it has a private key and a public key. To understand the notion in simple words, let’s suppose your message or transaction is a physical document that you need to sign in order to prove that you are the sender. The private key means that the seal or stamp is in your possession. Only you can use and apply it. Public key means that others have a method to verify that it is was really you who signed it.

On-chain transactions on any blockchain are also signed by the sender. Many renowned exchanges have integrated ED25519 into their application programming interface (API). An API works like a bridge between your trading bot and an exchange. Imagine that you want to withdraw some amount from your bank. The bank needs to verify that you yourself initiated the withdrawal request. Traditionally the verification is made by matching your signature if you are using a cheque, or a pin if you are using an application. This signature or the pin is the analogy to understand the digital signature tools. The cheque or the mobile application can be taken as an API.

Signature Security in Retrospect

The history of digital signatures goes back to 1977 when RSA (short for Rivest–Shamir–Adleman) was introduced. It was used for encryption as well as digital signature. Its security comes from breaking very large numbers into factors. You will hardly see it today as it was less secure, slower, and less efficient than it was expected to be. A later modification by the US Government itself was DSA (short for Digital Signature Algorithm) was a bit faster but not to the point of making its mark among users.

Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) became more popular later on as it was faster and lighter than the previous two versions. Ed25519 is very fast, needs small keys, and is designed to resist side-channel attacks (sneaky tricks used by hackers to steal keys). Because of this, it has been regarded as an improvement over RSA, DSA, and even ECDSA in many modern systems.

Advantages of ED25519 Signature

Deterministic Signatures

Older systems like RSA and DSA relied heavily on the feature that their signatures used to be different every time. Hackers exploited the random number generator’s loopholes, and many a time they succeeded in stealing the private keys. On the other hand, ED25519 creates the same signature for the same message every time. Behind the scene, the algorithm is different every time, so no attacker can guess and forge the signature.

Random number generation apparently looks more secure than the similar signature technology of Ed25519. However, it was the very generating part that was attacked by the hackers. For the crypto traders who intend to use this technology, security and safety is guaranteed.

Signature and Verification Speed

Compared to RSA and DSA, Ed25519 is much faster. There are many businesses as well as trading activities that require rapid signature system, and Ed25519 does just that. High frequency trading in the crypto market is an area that requires instant signatures unless the profit is evaporated. Moreover, sensitive communication also cannot afford to delay the encryption signatures, so they prefer Ed25519 signature system.

Not only signing but also the verifying speed is also quicker than the predecessors. Blockchain networks necessarily needs faster verifications. Therefore, traders heavily rely on ed25519 for its speed and high performance.

More Secure, More Reliable

The timing difference between signing and verification was also exploited by attackers in the cases of RSA and DSA. Many side-channel cryptographic attacks were also averted by the advent of Ed25519. This was made possible by the utilization of elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem instead of number factorization process employed by the previous systems. Blockchain network prefer Ed25519 due to its advanced Edward-Curve security.

Key Size is Smaller

For basic security, RSA used 2048 bits key size. It needed 3072–4096 bits key sized if it were to deliver advanced-level security. Now if we compare Ed25519 key size of only 256 bits (or 32 bytes), there is a statistically significant difference. This difference makes it suitable for the platforms that do not have a lot of power, like cell phones and smart home devices like speakers, thermostats, wearables such as fitness trackers and smartwatches, connected vehicles, and medical devices like pacemakers and sensors. Whenever these devices need to encrypt data, Ed25519 is their first choice. Due to the small key size, the bandwidth usage is also very small, again benefiting all devices.

Uses

Blockchain networks prefer Ed25519 signature system due to highly trustworthy security, speed and encryption. Whales and institutions look to it as their first line of defense against bad actors in the market. Icing on the cake, many high-liquidity exchanges have integrated Ed25519 signature system and related key generation in their application programming software.

Besides, it is used in the highly sensitive communication and banking systems. Smaller key size has attracted users from various platforms.

Bottom Line

Evolution in cryptography has given rise to ever changing signature tools, among which significant examples are RSA, DSA, ECDSA, and Ed25519. The latest one has proved itself as the best of the lot. The choice is due to its speed, security, efficiency and reliability in all circumstances, and for all platforms whether they are super powerful computers or tiny sensors and gadgets.