"The “k” in sepc256k1 stands for Koblitz and the “r” in sepc256r1 stands for random. A Koblitz elliptic curve has some special properties that make it possible to implement the group operation more efficiently. It is believed that there is a small security trade-off, that more “randomly” selected parameters are more secure. However, some people suspect that the random coefficients may have been selected to provide a back door."
If a solution is plausible, and this solution can bring dozens of billions of USD in in direct economic value or protect populations, certainly the smart people would/should think about a way to do it (and this could even be the right thing to do).
I'm not saying that Let's Encrypt is backdoored; what I'm saying is that it's a juicy target and that one potential solution to this problem is to encourage decentralization.
If you use Let's Encrypt, you are likely using Certbot, which means that everybody uses a tool that a central authority strongly recommends to you.
I wonder how they generate the key, for example, it may be using secp256r1: https://github.com/certbot/certbot/blob/5c111d0bd1206d864d7c... (this seems to be the default?)
Some time ago, I remember seeing secp256r1 in some tech talks like here: https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2018/08/21/a-tale-of-two-elli...
"The “k” in sepc256k1 stands for Koblitz and the “r” in sepc256r1 stands for random. A Koblitz elliptic curve has some special properties that make it possible to implement the group operation more efficiently. It is believed that there is a small security trade-off, that more “randomly” selected parameters are more secure. However, some people suspect that the random coefficients may have been selected to provide a back door."
If a solution is plausible, and this solution can bring dozens of billions of USD in in direct economic value or protect populations, certainly the smart people would/should think about a way to do it (and this could even be the right thing to do).
I'm not saying that Let's Encrypt is backdoored; what I'm saying is that it's a juicy target and that one potential solution to this problem is to encourage decentralization.