P256 transaction support

Abstract

This EIP adds a new EIP-7932 algorithm of type 0x0 for supporting P256 signatures.

Motivation

P256 (a.k.a secp256r1) is a widely-used NIST standardized algorithm that already has a presence within the Ethereum codebase. This makes it a great algorithm to write test cases against implementations of EIP-7932.

Specification

This EIP defines a new EIP-7932 algorithmic type with the following parameters:

N = 0xffffffff00000000ffffffffffffffffbce6faada7179e84f3b9cac2fc632551


def verify(signature_info: bytes, payload_hash: Hash32) -> Bytes:
    # Ignore initial alg_type byte
    signature_info = signature_info[1:]

    assert(len(signature_info) == 128)
    (r, s, x, y) = (signature_info[0:32], signature_info[32:64], signature_info[64:96], signature_info[96:128])

    # This is similar to [EIP-2](./eip-2.md)'s malleability verification.
    assert(s <= N/2)

    # This is defined in [P256Verify Function](#p256verify-function)
    assert(P256Verify(payload_hash, r, s, x, y) == Bytes("0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001"))
        
    return x.to_bytes(32, "big") + y.to_bytes(32, "big")

P256Verify Function

The P256Verify function is the logic of the precompile defined in EIP-7951, the only exception is that this function MUST NOT charge any gas.

Rationale

Additional 500 gas penalty

Much of this proposal is drawn from EIP-7951. Some of the test cases in EIP-7951 show that P256 is slower than secp256k1 and as such, a small penalty has been added to combat the slowdown of verification.

Why P256?

P256 or secp256r1, is used globally but (more importantly) has an existing implementation in all execution clients. This allows easy implementation of a known-safe algorithm, which is perfect for a test algorithm.

Backwards Compatibility

No backward compatibility issues found.

Security Considerations

Needs discussion.

Copyright

Copyright and related rights waived via CC0.