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A merkle tree that uses cryptographic signing instead of hashing is still a merkle tree. Though if we really feel it's necessary, we could simply say "a merkle
by falcolas 5y ago
A merkle tree that uses cryptographic signing instead of hashing is still a merkle tree.
Though if we really feel it's necessary, we could simply say "a merkle-tree like implementation that uses cryptographic signatures in place of a hash function".
Pedantry about the difference between hashes and signatures doesn't change the validity of the structure as a response to the original question.
- abiro 5y agoI challenge you to build a Merkle tree using a digital signature scheme in place of a cryptographic hash function where a Merkle tree constructed by Alice can be used by Bob without revealing Alice’s secret key.
- falcolas 5y agoOK. Challenge accepted. Alice and Bob both use asymmetric keys, and use one of a thousand different methods to exchange their public keys (hey, they can even go in the Merkle tree). Alice signs a transaction using her private key and publishes it. Bob can now use Alice's public key to verify the signature on the transaction. No private/secret key exposure. Asymmetric encryption is a fairly well explored field, which is what makes the above both easy to reason about and secure.
- abiro 5y agoOk well played, you’ve trolled me masterfully.