Post
Topic
Board Development & Technical Discussion
Re: zero point of secp256k1
by
akaki
on 20/12/2021, 09:00:56 UTC
Therefore, could we consider N*G as the zero ?
It is not zero, it is called infinity point. Essentially to compute k*G if k%N = 0 then we get point at infinity.

(-k*G+k*G)= N*G only for (k=1).
That is true for all k values and the result is point at infinity.
Code:
-k*G + k*G = (N-k)*G + k*G = (N-k+k)*G = N*G = 0*G = infinity

I'm not sure about that, we can also write:
Code:
-1*G + 1*G = N*G
-2*G + 2*G = (-1*G - 1*G) + (1*G +1*G) = 2N*G
...
-k*G + k*G = N*K*G

Therefore, there is probably a different "infinity" point for each pair (-k*G, k*G), which is in accordance with the fact that addition of x-axis symetrical points forms parallel lines.

However, in reality with k=2, we get a point not equal to 2N*G and with no apparent link to N*G :
 -2*G + 2*G=(49667982834466148699028630885550314015746939561788444090107179747772288677390, 37758011528734597361759657276645959964664126776856991748971785837209648797521).

So for me the question still needs clarifications.

Before generalizing the formula to any K<N, let's just understand what happens with k=2 that is different from k=1.