From 8841243b03cc62aae8cc4e19ca6d806bccea5dbc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Naman Kumar <330364+namankumar@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2024 11:50:21 -0800 Subject: [PATCH 1/3] Update notes.mdx --- docs/notes.mdx | 25 +++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 25 insertions(+) diff --git a/docs/notes.mdx b/docs/notes.mdx index 53df8fa5..b29e43e0 100644 --- a/docs/notes.mdx +++ b/docs/notes.mdx @@ -21,6 +21,31 @@ description: Notes and recordings from the Soroban protocol & developers meeting 2. Stellar + Soroban documentation survey 1. [Take the survey](https://discord.com/channels/897514728459468821/1204462856037470248/1205196745877757962) +## 2024-02-01 + + + +[Discord agenda thread](https://discord.com/channels/897514728459468821/1201979721211203614) + +1. The proposal is to advance stellar-core by adding a host function to verify the secp256r1 signature, which is the most common elliptic curve used outside of the blockchain space. It is useful in connecting off-chain authentication interfaces with on-chain functionality. + 1. Note that the proposal is not for a new signer type but a host function. +2. Leigh investigated adding support for the WebAuthN use case, by allowing a custom account / smart contract to sign soroban auth entries using a secp256r1-signed payload. + 1. secp256r1 is supported by phones, passkeys, and enables an app to replace passwords. This is a massive benefit to user-facing applications like wallets. +3. Pros and cons of the interface: blockchains generally implement the recovery interface over the verification interface but verification is easier for developers as it reduces burden on the client and the network. +4. The WebAuthN use case requires encoding and decoding of base64 payloads and decoding JSON blobs, which is not currently supported in Soroban. + 1. While there are hacky ways of accomplishing the latter, it’s not a great developer experience and final implementation is susceptible to breakages on updates. + 2. It is also costly to bundle decoding with verification in guest. + 3. Soroban has always led with a batteries included mindset. Keeping in line with that approach, it makes sense to further investigate and determine whether a host function makes sense for these as well. +5. Leigh’s implementation may require further evaluation of the crates used for ecdsa and p256. +6. Brief discussion around proposed process for adding of a host function by a non-core dev. + + + ## 2024-01-26