Make keys temporal through adding metadata in the derivation path? #1

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kngako · 2020-12-14T20:20:50Z

kngako commented

2020-12-14 20:20:50 +00:00

Xpubs as they are can't contain any metadata not useful in deriving new keys from them. For xpubs to support other use cases metadata was implicity stored through the reservation of certain derivation paths.

This is done in bip44 where the derivation path stores "metadata" of what type of coins the keys it produces are used for.

With this scheme we can then define a derivation path structure that we can deduce time related data from. This derivation path can the leave the rest of the metadata in the payload but we could define a derivation path scheme to have enough information to know when a key/derivation path expires

One can also go further and use the derivation path to define ACL features? But nah, that might be pushing it.

Xpubs as they are can't contain any metadata not useful in deriving new keys from them. For xpubs to support other use cases metadata was implicity stored through the reservation of certain derivation paths. This is done in [bip44](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0044.mediawiki) where the derivation path stores "metadata" of what type of coins the keys it produces are used for. With this scheme we can then define a derivation path structure that we can deduce time related data from. This derivation path can the leave the rest of the metadata in the payload but we could **define a derivation path scheme to have enough information to know when a key/derivation path expires** One can also go further and use the derivation path to define ACL features? But nah, that might be pushing it.

kngako commented

2020-12-14 20:52:15 +00:00

Since derivation paths can be 2147483648 (to support normal + hardened). We could have something like

MMddYYYYHH - So 1231999923 (December 31, 9999 23:00) would be the highest supported time value. With this scheme then we can expire keys/xpubs with an hourly precision.

For millisecond precision we might split the time precision into two indexes of a derivation path. MMddYYYY/HHmmSSzz. This scheme would make the time human readable to a certain extent.

Since derivation paths can be 2147483648 (to support normal + hardened). We could have something like `MMddYYYYHH` - So 1231999923 (December 31, 9999 23:00) would be the highest supported time value. With this scheme then we can expire keys/xpubs with an hourly precision. For millisecond precision we might split the time precision into two indexes of a derivation path. `MMddYYYY`/`HHmmSSzz`. This scheme would make the time human readable to a certain extent.

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Reference: hd-auth/auth.sigidli.com#1