That's why the Bitcoin and Ethereum crowd trust the Koblitz curves like secp256k1 instead of secp256r1 which is the only curve that is in widespread use in brow

That's why the Bitcoin and Ethereum crowd trust the Koblitz curves like secp256k1 instead of secp256r1 which is the only curve that is in widespread use in browsers, operating systems, secure enclaves etc. The k1 curve has parameters like 15, whereas the "standard" one has curves with parameters chosen as an "arbitrary" number in the billions for some reason. People believe the NSA may have iterated through the previous ones until they found a vulnerable curve, and NIST recommended that. Take a look: https://cointelegraph.com/news/this-researcher-says-bitcoins-elliptic-curve-could-have-a-secret-backdoor https://cointelegraph.com/news/this-researcher-says-bitcoins... “(1) The Koblitz curve is specially designed for faster scalar multiplications. Hence the (signing, verifying and key generation) operations on Secp256k1 are faster than those on Secp256r1. (2) Although the Secp256r1 curve was announced to be randomly selected, there could still exist some suspicion that some backdoor might be secretly set up in the curve parameters. In contrast, the Koblitz curve parameters are mathematically determined, and there is little possibility for setting such a backdoor.” However, given the prevalence of the r1 curve, Ethereum devs might want to add a precompiled contract so that people can sign into the blockchain without trusting web sites and wallet software: https://ethereum-magicians.org/t/eip-7212-precompiled-for-secp256r1-curve-support/14789 https://ethereum-magicians.org/t/eip-7212-precompiled-for-se... https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/256088/is-the-elliptic-curve-secp256r1-without-a-backdoor https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/256088/is-the-e...