Qvault

This is going to be a basic introduction to hash functions. I will assume most of my audience is here to gain an understanding of why hash functions are used and the basic idea of why they work. My goal is to explain it in a general sense, I will be omitting proofs and implementation details and instead focusing on the high-level principles. Why Use A Hash Function? Hash functions are used all over the internet in order to securely store passwords, find duplicate records, quickly store and retrieve data, and more. For example,  Qvault  uses hashes to extend master passwords into private encryption keys. A longer list of uses here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_function#Uses I want to focus on several important features of hash functions, arguably the most important features. Hash functions scramble data deterministically No matter the input, the output of a hash function always has the same size The original data can not be retrieved from the scrambled d...

This is going to be a basic introduction to elliptic curve cryptography. I will assume most of my audience is here to gain an understanding of why ECC is an effective cryptographic tool and the basics of why it works. My goal is to explain it in a general sense, I will be omitting proofs and implementation details and instead focusing on the high-level principles of what makes it work. An Example Elliptic Curve What It’s For? ECC is a way to encrypt data so that only specific people can decrypt it. This has several obvious real-life use cases, but the main usage is in encrypting internet data and traffic. For instance, ECC can be used to ensure that when an email is sent, no one but the recipient can read the message. ECC is a type of Public Key Cryptography There are many types of public-key cryptography, and Elliptic Curve Cryptography is just one flavor. Other algorithms include RSA, Diffie-Helman, etc. I’m going to give a very simple background of public-key cr...