Elliptic Curve Cryptography is a public-key encryption scheme that uses a special type of elliptic curve called an elliptic curve over a finite number of elements (generally 12). Also known as DSA (Digital Signature Algorithm), ECDSA (Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm) or EdDSA (Edwards Signature Algorithm), this type of cryptography relies on the fact that it’s easy to compute points on an elliptic curve using special numbers called private keys while it’s hard to find these points using public keys.To encrypt data using this type of cryptography, one uses a public key to generate an encrypted message from its original text using an algorithm based on elliptic curves and then sends this message to its intended recipient via a secure means such as email. This recipient will use his or her corresponding private key to obtain the original text without having access to any encryption algorithm or procedures. This example illustrates how two people can communicate securely when communicating via DSA.
