Implement ECC?

[fyellin]

Consider this a Request For Information.

Among the keywords in pyproject.toml are elliptic curves and elliptic curve cryptography. While I don't have a lot of experience with elliptic curves in general, I do have a bit of experience in implementing ECC. Is being able to handle ECC (without being able to handle elliptic curves in general) something you're looking for?

Also, which curves are you most interested in? The most common are X25519 and NIST P-256. P-384 and P-521 are close cousins to P-256 and their implementations are mostly identical. The curve secp256k1 is used by bitcoin.

(I would have assigned labels to this Issue, but it seems that requires specific powers.)

[mhostetter]

I had a goal a long time ago to add elliptic curves. Mostly for my own intellectual curiosity. I had a sense there were other libraries that "solved" that problem. If there is a reasonable need for a general-purpose, pythonic elliptic curve / ECC library, I would happy to include a thorough solution here, but it just fell to the bottom of the list.

Do you think there is a "gap" in python libraries regarding elliptic curves and ECC?

[fyellin]

Not really. The cryptography package already does most of what anyone needs in terms of ECC. Adding it to galois would just be if anyone wants to play around with it. Regarding elliptic curves in general, I've played around with them in Sage. I suspect most users who care about elliptic curves (apart from cryptography) are using Sage. I know that some of the more exotic bitcoin offshoots use more complex curves that Sage can handle. So I suppose the takeaway is that you need to decide whether to leave these in the project.toml as aspirational, or remove them.

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On Thu, Jan 8, 2026 at 5:55 PM mhostetter ***@***.***> wrote: *mhostetter* left a comment (mhostetter/galois#646) <#646 (comment)> I had a goal a long time ago to add elliptic curves. Mostly for my own intellectual curiosity. I had a sense there were other libraries that "solved" that problem. If there is a reasonable need for a general-purpose, pythonic elliptic curve / ECC library, I would happy to include a thorough solution here, but it just fell to the bottom of the list. Do you think there is a "gap" in python libraries regarding elliptic curves and ECC? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#646 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABC2LIJYLJMKC3VTBADUOI34F4DB3AVCNFSM6AAAAACQYS5WC2VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZTOMRWG4YTGMBQGE> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[mhostetter]

Fair. I think I will remove the tags in pyproject.toml for now. I feel extra academic, I may work to add them later. Thanks for the feedback.