Cryptographers concerned over NSA's deprecation of ECC

[SockPuppet]

In theory Bitcoin can migrate away from ECC if/when necessary — just like in theory it could easily raise the block size.

NSA’s Divorce from ECC Causing Crypto Hand-Wringing

Summary: Now the NSA are raising concerns about use of ECC going into the the future, but cryptographers don't buy the surface excuse, and don't know whether it's a real warning or a manipulative feint.

(wouldn't it be nice if signals intelligence was a separate agency to the one that secures US systems)

[/r/crypto discussion]

One of the reasons Bitcoin wallets don't reuse addresses is because if ECC were ever broken then bitcoins held in reused addresses might no longer be secure. So the NSA is hinting against reusing your bitcoin addresses

Anyway, an enigma to keep an eye on over the next 5 to 10 years...

 

[sickpig]

Matthew Green's excellent post on the subject (I.e. NSA dropping suite b program):

http://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2015/10/a-riddle-wrapped-in-curve.html?m=1

 

[cypherdoc]

isn't it sad we've gotten to the point where we can't trust our own NSA?

 

[cypherdoc]

https://www.nsa.gov/ia/programs/suiteb_cryptography/

 

[Bagatell]

Sometimes I’ve heard people who are sceptical and not very well informed saying ‘oh well the NSA’s probably cracked all of the encryption algorithms anyway’. There is no evidence to suggest that they’ve done it, and no evidence to suggest that they are going to be able to do it anytime soon.

http://factor-tech.com/feature/jimmy-wales-all-major-internet-traffic-is-going-to-be-encrypted-very-very-soon/