From ca26228f581b34346e7b27b6dc2d88a369b97582 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "David A. Harding" Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2023 20:35:01 -1000 Subject: [PATCH] CH04::privkeys: Hash digests aren't numbers We just choose to interpet them that way --- ch04.asciidoc | 3 ++- 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/ch04.asciidoc b/ch04.asciidoc index abff2392..3a5f1ae4 100644 --- a/ch04.asciidoc +++ b/ch04.asciidoc @@ -150,7 +150,8 @@ than 2^256^) defined as the order of the elliptic curve used in bitcoin 256-bit number and check that it is less than +n+. In programming terms, this is usually achieved by feeding a larger string of random bits, collected from a cryptographically secure source of randomness, into the -SHA256 hash algorithm, which will conveniently produce a 256-bit number. +SHA256 hash algorithm, which will conveniently produce a 256-bit value +that can be interpreted as a number. If the result is less than +n+, we have a suitable private key. Otherwise, we simply try again with another random number.