Signatures of Messages using Private Keys

The five-minute read

One action, walked through

1. Open BIP 137 and read the status line before the examples.
2. Write down the rule in one sentence. A fair version of that sentence is: This document describes a signature format for signing messages with Bitcoin private keys.
3. Name the object that changes: P2PKH, P2SH.
4. Ask what an old client, an old contract, or an offline counterparty does. If the document is silent, the silence is part of the design.

The argument, unpacked

What has to be true

• You are implementing BIP 137 at the status the text itself states: Deployed.
• The object that has to change is P2PKH, P2SH. A neighbouring document with a similar name is not this one.
• A token standard does not collateralise itself.

What happened after the paper

The source marks this deployed. That is a statement about the text, not a promise that every wallet or node has shipped it. Later documents can narrow, replace, or ignore this one. Cite the number you mean.

What to check before you use the idea

• Who loses money if the assumption in Signatures of Messages using Private Keys is wrong?
• Is redemption specified, or only a transfer function?
• Which terms are actually defined: P2PKH, P2SH?

Terms

BIP 137

The public text titled Signatures of Messages using Private Keys.

Deployed

The document's own label for how finished the text is. It is not a market fact.

The problem the paper names

A claim that something is a dollar, a loan, or a vault is a claim about who is paid when the price moves. The interface is not that claim.

What the design proposes

• This document describes a signature format for signing messages with Bitcoin private keys.
• The specification is intended to describe the standard for signatures of messages that can be signed and verified between different clients that exist in the field today.
• Note: that a new signature format has been defined which has a number of advantages over this BIP, but to be backwards compatible with existing implementations this BIP will be useful.

How the mechanism is specified

• Taken from the specification, the next constraint is: The specification is intended to describe the standard for signatures of messages that can be signed and verified between different clients that exist in the field today.
• Locate P2PKH, P2SH in BIP 137 and apply it to one transaction or call.
• Then check the failure the class of rule always has: a node that did not upgrade, a reverted call, a replayed signature, or a peer that does not speak the message.

What this page does not treat as proven

• Nothing on this page is a yield, a redemption promise, or an offer of credit.
• A token standard does not collateralise itself.
• The source marks this deployed. That is a statement about the text, not a promise that every wallet or node has shipped it.

Why a venture studio still reads it

Use BIP 137 when a pitch says 'Signatures of Messages using Private Keys' without saying whether the rule is consensus, policy, or an interface. The number is the citation. The pitch is not.