Blockstream releases Schnorr-Based Test Code for Bitcoin

Blockstream – a blockchain tech company – just released the Schnorr-based multi-signature scheme – MuSig the Schnorr-based MuSig is a test code for the potential upgrade to the blockchain of Bitcoin (BTC). This was revealed in an announcement on the 18th of February.

Last January, four Bitcoin developers released a paper outlining how Schnorr multi-signatures (‘multisig’) could help scale the Bitcoin blockchain, saying that the technology could reduce its transaction size and “improve both performance and user privacy in Bitcoin”. In the paper, the developers state that MuSig is designed as “a protocol that allows a group of signers to produce a short, joint signature on a common message.”

The developers said that the technology could reduce the transaction size of Bitcoin (BTC) and improve both user privacy and performance in Bitcoin (BTC). According to the paper, the Schnorr-based Multi-signature is built as a protocol that lets a group of signers produce a joint, short signature on a common message.

The announcement reveals that MuSig has been transformed from just an idea into usable code. Moreover, the code was also merged into secp256k1-zkp this week. Secp256k1-zkp is a fork of secp256k1 that represents “the high assurance cryptographic library that is used by BTC Core.” In the paper, the developers talked about whey they decided to create MuSig by developing “a misuse-resistant API without sharp corners, and one that does not encourage dangerous use patters even in an environment that is constrained.”

The post also emphases the importance of improving verification efficiency and creating provable security in the public key model. According to reports, the signature of MuSig enhances privacy since they hide the exact policy of the signer. Nevertheless, since the starting of the development of the MuSig, the creators of the technology has reportedly discovered that a lot of already released signature schemes – including an earlier unreleased version of MuSig – are insecure.

According to the post: “MuSig signatures, just like Schnorr signatures or ECDSA, use in their construction a secret ‘nonce’ which must be produced uniformly randomly. Any deviation from uniform, even by just a bit, can result in the loss of secret key and stolen funds.”

The next halving of Bitcoin (BTC) is expected to occur in May 2020. Bitcoin (BTC) halving is an event that takes place about once every four years. After this event takes place, the amount of new Bitcoin (BTC) earned and created by miners will be cut in half. In anticipation of the next BTC halving, LedgerX – a U.S.-regulated clearing and trading platform – released a new type of derivative contracts unique to Bitcoin (BTC). The new contract is called LedgerX Halving Contract (LXHC).