So we’re starting to get an idea of what dWallets are. We’re also getting a better understanding of the new capabilities they have because they run on their own decentralized network — the Odsy Network. This dedicated network is what allows dWallets to be:

• Programmable,
• Secure, and
• Cross-chain compatible
  

Now we can take a look at how the network achieves this via several components, namely:

• A Turing-complete virtual machine,
• Threshold Signature Schemes (TSS), and an
• Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA).
  

We’ll break all these concepts down and then see how it all comes together in an ongoing series about the Odsy tech stack. Let’s start with signing algorithms since they are at the ground level of wallet functionality.

Public Key Cryptography

When we say that “wallets are just a system for signing with private keys,” what do we mean by this system? What does “signing” mean in this context? What are private keys?

These are all references to a particular application of Public Key Cryptography (PKC) — a method for securing and verifying information through key pairs. This just means that in a system that uses PKC you will be given a “secret number,” or private key, that has a special mathematical relationship to another “number” known as the public key.

This relationship is based on a calculation that is very easy to do when you have all the right information but practically impossible to reverse or forge with the wrong information. In other words, it allows anybody to see that you know the “secret number” without having to reveal it. It does so by creating a digital signature with that “secret number.”

An important trait of digital signatures is that anyone can validate them for themselves: given a message and its signature, you can easily verify that this message was signed by the person holding a certain public key. Blockchains rely on this trait for authentication; every node or validator validates for itself that the transaction was signed by the public key that corresponds to the address of the sender.

Digital Signature Algorithms

If you talk to a cryptographer they’ll tell you that there are many ways to establish this mathematical relationship between two keys that allows users to prove that they have access to a particular account.

Most major blockchain networks, however, rely on a particular way to create digital signatures known as an Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) or a variation of it known as Edwards-curve Digital Signature Algorithm(EdDSA).

Going Multi-Chain with dWallets

dWallets on the  Odsy Network will support both  ECDSA and EdDSA  as the underlying signing algorithm. This makes the wallets that are created, programmed, and secured by the Odsy Network compatible with almost all other blockchains.

They can even be used to create dApps that sign transactions on different blockchain networks. Here, the Odsy Network acts like a decentralized layer for the creation of these digital signatures and whatever is programmed with its wallet contracts can interact with all of web3.

What can we build with dWallets when this is their starting point? Stay tuned to find out or dive deeper in the litepaper.