If I remember the details correctly you could combine (lagrange interpolation) the results of m smaller encryptions/signatures without ever sharing the secret key share itself. No idea if that is possible with ecdsa at all, but it sure would solve quite a few problems, as it would allow several independent servers to share a secret key, sign transactions with it, but no m-1 compromised machines would endanger the whole balance. I will definitely look into it when I'm back from holidays. Cheers, Cdecker On Aug 24, 2011 9:29 PM, "Gregory Maxwell" wrote: > On Wed, Aug 24, 2011 at 3:05 PM, Christian Decker > wrote: >> we could add an rsa-like scheme which allows m-out-of-n signatures. It works >> by distributing shares of the key which are points on a curve having the >> actual key as 0-value. It does not require special length for the key so if >> ecdsa allows something similar there need not be anything changed. > > This works fine for ECC. But it requires that the composite key > signer has simultaneous access to all the key-parts, so it doesn't > solve the "my PC has malware" problem.