An EC (Elliptic Curve) key-pair is a pair of a private and public key constructed from a given subgroup generator in a given elliptic curve group.
Here are the steps to generate an EC private and public key pair:
EC Private and Public Key Pair
Naming Elliptic Curves Used in Cryptography
There is an infinite number of elliptic curves, but a small number are used in cryptography, and these special curves have names. Apparently, there are no hard and fast rules for how the names are chosen, but there are patterns.
The named elliptic curves are over a prime field, i.e. a finite field, with a prime number of elements p. The number of points on the elliptic curve is on the order of p [1].
Trust Models for Secure Network Connections
The Concept of Trust in Cybersecurity
Everyone is talking about the strength of cryptography and its susceptibility to new generations of computing programs. For example, there’s a wealth of discussion about preferable algorithms that should be used for authentication and encryption. Much of this debate is framed within the context of fears and assumptions about a future in which quantum computing holds sway.
Quantum computing may make it possible to execute certain algorithms in a matter of seconds instead of days. The ramifications, should this eventuality come to pass, are huge, not just for cryptocurrencies but for the entire Internet. A quantum breakthrough raises the risk of breaking most of our existing encrypted security protocols — think online banking, VPNs, database storage, digital signatures, blockchains, and disk encryption. Although it looks like functional quantum computers are still a few years off, no one can be entirely sure quite how well they will work against cryptography until they are readily available.