Reading List

Object-Capability Model

• What are capabilities
• E in a walnut
• "The object reference graph becomes the access graph."
• Capability myths demolished 1
• Capability myths demolished 2
• An Ode to the Granovetter diagram
• Capability Oriented Programming

ACID Stuff:

• Write-Ahead Logging
• Shadow Paging

Security

• Confused deputy problem
• Capability security model

Basic Math and CS

• Lambda calculus
• Lambda Calculus - Computerphile
• Modular arithmetic (essential for many, many crypto schemes)
• More in-depth mathematics needed for crypto:
  • Finite field (Our focus: prime-order fields)
  • The mathematical groups most often used for Schnorr signatures
    • Subgroups of cyclic groups (Further background on why Schnorr groups are mathematically sound for the desired properties)

Schnorr signatures, Zero-knowledge proofs, and Multisig

• Terse description of a Schnorr signature's mathematics
  • Schnorr's patent
• Security considerations of Schnorr signatures (many parts apply to many other crypto schemes):
  • Why it's so difficult to break Schnorr signatures (and many other crypto schemes)
  • Why we must use prime-order groups
  • Why we need the primes to be large and why reusing primes excessively is bad
  • Most-efficient publicly known ways to solve prime-order-group discrete logarithm problems: Pollard's rho algorithm for logarithms and Index calculus algorithm
    • Current records
  • Legality of export from the U.S.A.
• Zero-knowledge proofs
  • Non-interactive zero-knowledge proof (a.k.a., zk-SNARK)
  • Zcash Blog: Explaining SNARKs Part: I, II, III, IV, V, VI
• Multisig: see Signature Options

Capabilities V. ACL diagrams

Breach in an ACL oriented system:

Breach in a Capabilities Oriented system: