Summary of Gordian Developer meeting @ August 7, 2024

[shannona]

Gordian Meeting: August 7

The August 7th Gordian Developers Meeting focused on Seed Resilience, with feature presentations on BIP-85 and Ledger Seed Tool

Seeds

Seeds are heart of digital-asset security.

• We need to keep them safe (security)
• We need to avoid losing them (resilience)

See the Blockchain Commons Test Seed

Blockchain Commons Tools

Blockchain Commons has seed-related specifications:

• UR & Envelope for Seed Storage
• SSKR Sharding for Seed Resilience
• Request/Response for Seed Transfers

Also, reference apps for helping developers test & implement standards:

• iOS SeedTool
• Seedtool-CLI-Rust

MacOS App

Can create, identify, backup, and shard seeds.

Can derive keys.

Can sign Bitcoin PSBT requests.

Can print out info on seeds.

Also support NFCs in the REF or NREF format.

Seedtool-CLI

Very similar functionality, but also translate seeds & integrates with Envelope-CLI for signing, eliding, encryption of seed envelopes.

BIP-85

Moving on to our first feature presentation of the day, by Aneesh Karve, BIP-85 Champion.

Aneesh has alignment with Blockchain Commons in giving users more sovereignty over their secrets.

His own problem: it's expensive (in time) to create multisig quora.

Therefore, BIP-85.

Its primary purpose: use a single secret as the root of a tree of secrets.

• slight generalization of BIP-32
• and generalization of paths in BIP-44

BIP-32:

• Hierarchical deterministic wallets
• Today, every wallet vendor supports BIP-32
• irreversible (up to hardening)
• Reproducible

BIP-85:

• A generalized keychain
• Just needs to be generalized from BIP-32 a little bit
• Tend to use all hardened

For derivation paths, 83696968 is BIP-85

bipsea

CLI software

• for developers to experiment with, like Blockchain Commons' own research
• can generate mnemonics
• can validate BIP-39 words
• can even generate seeds from memorized phrases
  • important for situations such as war zones!
• can generate extended private key

Ultimate goal is to derive a mnemonic.

• Moreso, can generate a bunch of mnemonics!
• And thus a bunch of seeds based on different "indices"
  • Uses child indexes (2^31)
• That's BIP-85

New Additions

Working on generating other useful things in a new iteration of the BIP.

• Generate PINs
• Generate Password

WWhat Does BIP-85 Add?

• Simplified
• Can store entropy in cards, cipher, chess game, etc
  • Not just BIP-39

Coldcard, Foundation Devices have BIP-85 support

Future

Semantic Paths

• Currently, just integer paths
  • want to use JSON-LD & hash into integer
    Steganographic "Free" Seed Mnemonics
• Easier to Hide
  • But easier to get wrong

Blockchain Commons Integration

Blockchain Commons offered their own thoughts on BIP-85.

Not originally supported because not clear that master seed added much security

• But it's well understood
• It's getting some implementation
• Consistency has advantages!

On Mnemonic words

• Blockchain Commons uses a different set, ByteWords
• High Valance, High Concreteness
• No homophones
• Unique first and last levels

On #SmartCustody

• People aren't willing to spend even an hour.

JSON-LD

• Lots of people don't get it
• Whereas Envelope is built to support determinism
  • with dCBOR

Would love to see BIP-85 integrated for some of these issues

Q&A

Mnemonics are totally separate from BIP-85!

Can we recommend BIP-85 secrets have a checksum?

• Checksum is easy part!
• But the trick is entry!
  • Bytewords is built reduce this sort of entry error

Dice & card inputs

• need to make sure they produce same results everywhere!

BIP-85 at Foundation Devices

Lots of customer requests!

• Hadn't been on road map

Can now create 12 + 24-word Mnemonic + Nostr Keys

Was trivial to implement

• Just a few days
• Because already had derivation paths

Ledger Seed Tool Application

The month's other feature presentation was on Aido's new Seed Tool for Ledger.

Ledger wallet didn't support Shamir's Secret Sharing

• So Aido wrote his own

App is released!

BIP-39 alone doesn't provide redundancy! (resilience)

• Multisig is too complex
• Shamir's Secret Sharing is a nice balance

Ledger doesn't let you extract seed

• But can input seed & compare it
• So user can input BIP-39 seed
• And output SSKR shares
• Using Blockchain Commons' SSKR library

Emulator allowed checking against different Ledger devices

• Though some issues with simulator!

As did Blockchain Commons' Seedtool CLI

• Which is exactly what Blockchain Commons' reference apps are for!

App

• Can create SSKR shares
• Can validate SSKR shares
• Can convert SSKR shares back to BIP-39

Future Plans

• Ledger Flex
• BIP 85
• QR Codes on Stax
  • Maybe Animated QR

What's Next? What Should We Be Expanding on?

• BIP-85
• More Key Derivations
• Gordian Depositories
• NFC & Smart JavaCard Backup
• Key Generation & MPC
• FROST

Get Involved!

• Use Blockchain Commons Existing Specs
  • UR for interoperable connections & animated QRs
  • SSKR bytewords for simple sharding
  • Envelope for Smart Storage
• Get In On the Next Thing: Collaborative Seed Recovery
  • Shard your seeds & metadata with SSKR-Envelope
  • Support GSTP, Host a Gordian Depository

The next Gordian Meeting is planned for September 4.