Accounts

Creating a private key from seed
A seed string is a representation of entropy, from which you can re-create deterministically all the private keys for one wallet. It should be long enough so that the probability of selection is an unrealistic negligible.
In fact, seed should be an array of bytes but for ease of memorization, the LTO wallet uses a mnemonic seed phrase, to ensure that the seed is made up of words and easy to write down or remember. The application takes the UTF-8 bytes of the string and uses them to create keys and addresses.
For example, seed string 
manage manual recall harvest series desert melt police rose hollow moral pledge kitten position add 
after reading this string as UTF-8 bytes and encoding them to Base58, the string will be coded as 
xrv7ffrv2A9g5pKSxt7gHGrPYJgRnsEMDyc4G7srbia6PhXYLDKVsDxnqsEqhAVbbko7N1tDyaSrWCZBoMyvdwaFNjWNPjKdcoZTKbKr2Vw9vu53Uf4dYpyWCyvfPbRskHfgt9q
A seed string is involved with the creation of private keys. The nonce' field is an integer prepended to the seed bytes. Typically, this value is initially 0 and increases every time you create the new address. 
We use this array of bytes to calculate the hash sha256(blake2b256(bytes)). This resulting array of bytes called the account seed. From the account seed, you can deterministically generate a private and public key pair.
Example
Brainwallet seed string
1
manage manual recall harvest series desert melt police rose hollow moral pledge kitten position add
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As Base58 encoded byte array
1
xrv7ffrv2A9g5pKSxt7gHGrPYJgRnsEMDyc4G7srbia6PhXYLDKVsDxnqsEqhAVbbko7N1tDyaSrWCZBoMyvdwaFNjWNPjKdcoZTKbKr2Vw9vu53Uf4dYpyWCyvfPbRskHfgt9q
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Account seed bytes with nonce 0 before apply hash function (Base58 encoded)
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1111xrv7ffrv2A9g5pKSxt7gHGrPYJgRnsEMDyc4G7srbia6PhXYLDKVsDxnqsEqhAVbbko7N1tDyaSrWCZBoMyvdwaFNjWNPjKdcoZTKbKr2Vw9vu53Uf4dYpyWCyvfPbRskHfgt9q
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Account seed sha256(blake2b256(account seed bytes))  (Base58 encoded)
1
93dvzDQ8KBe4y7Nw89xsguWe8ZTVYGAA5kjvJ7miQS1v
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Account seed after sha256 hashing (optional, if your library does not do it yourself)
1
ETYQWXzC2h8VXahYdeUTXNPXEkan3vi9ikXbn912ijiw
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Alternative methods
Using the method based on the account seed, ensure that the seed phrase is compatible with the LTO wallet. However, it's not required to use this method.
The seed is not needed for signing, only the private key. The key can be generated through other means, for instance using OpenSSL genkey.
Key types
LTO network supports multiple cryptographic algorithms for signing.
id
reference
type
curve
1
​ed25519​
EdDSA
curve25519
2
​secp256k1​
ECDSA
secp256k1
3
secp256r1
ECDSA
secp256r1
4
rsa
RSA
​
ED25519
By default, accounts use EdDSA with curve25519. ED25519 is used for signatures. X25519 is used for encryption in the project.
EdDSA allows generating the X25519 private key from the ED25519 private key and the X25519 public key from the ED25519 public key. Only the keys for signing are on the public chain, but this allows the keys for encryption to be calculated.
Use NaCl or sodium to create an address from the account seed.
Signing
Created private key using the account seed 93d...S1v.
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4zsR9xoFpxfnNwLcY4hdRUarwf5xWtLj6FpKGDFBgscPxecPj2qgRNx4kJsFCpe9YDxBRNoeBWTh2SDAdwTySomS
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Created public key
1
GjSacB6a5DFNEHjDSmn724QsrRStKYzkahPH67wyrhAY
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Encryption
Created private key using the account seed 93d...S1v.
1
4q7HKMbwbLcG58iFV3pz4vkRnPTwbrY9Q5JrwnwLEZCC
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Created public key
1
6fDod1xcVj4Zezwyy3tdPGHkuDyMq8bDHQouyp5BjXsX
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secp256k1
Bitcoin, Ethereum, and many other blockchains use ECDSA with the secp256k1 curve for signing transactions. Outside of the realm of blockchain, this curve is barely used and not well supported.
Signing
Created private key using the account seed 93d...S1v.
1
TODO
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Create the corresponding coordinates for the public key and compress the public key.
1
TODO
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Encryption
Encryption is currently not supported for accounts with secp256k1 keys.
secp256r1
The most commonly used and well-supported Elliptic Curve is NIST P-256. This is an ECDSA method using the secp256r1 curve.
Signing
Created private key using the account seed 93d...S1v.
1
TODO
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Create the corresponding coordinates for the public key and compress the public key.
1
TODO
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Encryption
Encryption is currently not supported for accounts with nist256p1 keys.
Creating the address
The public network address is obtained from the (signature) public key and chain id.
#
Field Name
Type
Length
1
Version (0x01)
Byte
1
2
Chain id
Byte
1
3
Public key hash
Bytes
20
4
Checksum
Bytes
4
Public key hash the first 20 bytes of the SecureHash of the public key. SecureHash is the hash function sha256(Blake2b256(public_key)).
Checksum is the first 4 bytes of SecureHash of version, scheme, and hash bytes.
Because the address contains the chain id, different networks result in a different address for the same seed / public key.
Network
Char
Byte
Testnet
T
0x54
Mainnet
L
0x4C
Example
For public key
1
GjSacB6a5DFNEHjDSmn724QsrRStKYzkahPH67wyrhAY
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for the mainnet network (chain id 'T'), this key results in the following address
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3JmCa4jLVv7Yn2XkCnBUGsa7WNFVEMxAfWe
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Derived identities
The blockchain address of derived identities is calculated from a public key, plus a secret. To calculate the public key hash, hmac is used, instead of a normal sha256 hash.
1
sha256_hmac(Blake2b256(public_key), secret)
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Derived identity addresses are only used for decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and can't be used to sign transactions on the public blockchain.