Bitcoin: can i extract internal key given tweaked-pubkey and bip341 tweak tag?
Can You Extract Internal Keys from Bitcoin Tweakments?
The world of Bitcoin tweaking is a complex and often misunderstood topic. One of the most intriguing aspects of this field is extracting internal keys from tweaked public keys using various cryptographic techniques.
In this article, we’ll delve into the concept of internal keys in Bitcoin, explore how they’re tweaked, and examine the feasibility of extracting them with specific tweaks like bip341.
Internal Keys of Bitcoin
Bitcoin’s underlying protocol doesn’t directly store private keys. Instead, each user has a pair of public and private keys: a “user key” and an “internal key.” The internal key is not publicly exposed and serves as a private component to the user key. It’s used for cryptographic operations, such as signing transactions.
When a user generates a new transaction or spends their existing coins, they’re essentially using their private key (internal) with their public key (user). This ensures secure communication between wallets and prevents anyone else from accessing the internal keys.
Tweaking Public Keys
Tweakments are modifications to a public key that enable Bitcoin’s cryptographic operations. These tweaks allow for various features like spending coins, creating new addresses, or even reversing transactions. One of these tweak techniques is bip341 (Basepoint).
Bip341 tweaks an existing public key by replacing its internal key with a new one. This can be useful in certain scenarios where the original internal key is compromised or needs to be changed.
Extracting Internal Keys from Bip341 Tweakments
The question remains: can you extract the internal key from a tweaked bip341 public key? To answer this, let’s examine how Bitcoin stores and uses these tweaked keys.
When a user tweaks their bip341 public key using bitcoin-cli or other tools, it updates the internal key. However, extracting this new internal key is not straightforward. Bitcoin does not provide a direct way to retrieve the original internal key from the tweaked output.
The Challenges
There are several challenges to extracting the internal key:
- Tweaking complexity: Bip341 tweaks involve complex cryptographic operations that can make it difficult to reverse-engineer the internal key.
- No clear representation
: Bitcoin’s tweak outputs don’t provide a straightforward way to extract the original internal key from the tweaked output.
Schlussfolgerung
While it seems impossible to directly extract the internal key from a tweaked bip341 public key, there might be alternative approaches or edge cases we’re not aware of.
However, if you’re interested in exploring this topic further, keep in mind that Bitcoin’s design and cryptography are constantly evolving. New techniques and tools may emerge that could potentially help with extracting internal keys from tweaked public keys.
If you’re looking to exploit or reverse-engineer tweaked bitcoin-cli commands for malicious purposes, proceed with caution. In most cases, it’s not worth the risk, as attempting to extract internal keys can lead to significant security issues.
Final thoughts
In conclusion, while we’ve explored how Bitcoin tweaks and bip341 work, extracting internal keys from tweaked public keys remains a challenging task. As our understanding of Bitcoin’s underlying cryptographic mechanisms evolves, new techniques and tools might emerge that could help us overcome these challenges.