Piper Wallet v2 and possible remake of v1

[DaveF]

The RPi has it's own hardware TRNG (True Random Number Generator). It outputs 1 million bits per second, so you don't need to spend a lot of time to get 1024 bits, or 512, or even just 256 bits. Then use that as seed to a faster PRNG or even SHA256 to generate private keys.

Since I'm stupid and can't find it. Can you point to any docs on how to use that instead of the CPU, which I assume it's doing now.

As I said I my friend who does programming taking a look at it in a month or so, but if it's simple I should be able to do it.

Thanks,
Dave

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[Dabs]

I just found them by doing a search:

https://www.nico-maas.de/?p=1562
http://scruss.com/blog/2013/06/07/well-that-was-unexpected-the-raspberry-pis-hardware-random-number-generator/
https://sites.google.com/site/astudyofentropy/project-definition/raspberry-pi-internal-hardware-random-number-generator
https://blog.webernetz.net/true-random-psk-generator-on-a-raspi/
https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/61888/how-to-know-if-dev-hwrng-is-working
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=32407
https://vk5tu.livejournal.com/43059.html

Installing haveged worked before all this.

I think this is what you're looking for:

Code:

sudo apt-get install rng-tools

this will install rngd, which gets entropy from /dev/hwrng and feeds it to /dev/random where it is mixed into the kernel's entropy pool.

Let me know what worked for you. Maybe it's already on by default.

[DaveF]

I just found them by doing a search:

https://www.nico-maas.de/?p=1562
http://scruss.com/blog/2013/06/07/well-that-was-unexpected-the-raspberry-pis-hardware-random-number-generator/
https://sites.google.com/site/astudyofentropy/project-definition/raspberry-pi-internal-hardware-random-number-generator
https://blog.webernetz.net/true-random-psk-generator-on-a-raspi/
https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/61888/how-to-know-if-dev-hwrng-is-working
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=32407
https://vk5tu.livejournal.com/43059.html

Installing haveged worked before all this.

I think this is what you're looking for:

Code:

sudo apt-get install rng-tools

this will install rngd, which gets entropy from /dev/hwrng and feeds it to /dev/random where it is mixed into the kernel's entropy pool.

Let me know what worked for you. Maybe it's already on by default.

I have no idea what I searched for that none of that came up.
Doing it again a lot came up.

Would love to know what I actually put in the search bar, that's the problem with duck duck go, no history.

Will take a look after work to see if it helps.

Thanks,
Dave

[Dabs]

Well, if you want history, you'd use google. But yeah, I stopped using google for almost all web searches, so ... that's the flip side of being private ... all my relatives and friends and classmates are complaining why I don't have a facebook account. My answer "I refuse." hehehe... (yes, I don't have a facebook account, never have. Not sure but maybe in the future I may create one and mark it all private as much as possible.)

BTW, my search terms were "raspberry pi RNG" or something like that.

[DaveF]

Bit of a delayed update:

1) Programmer is re-doing most of the back end work on making the button work and some other changes. As he put it "I'm sure there is a worse way of doing what they did in the way that they did it, I'm just not sure how" No real ETA on it as it's being done during his free time which is why this update was so long in coming.

2) Printer settings are tweaked. Seems to be 100% now.

3) I have the wallet generating working faster thanks to the advice of Dabs.

4) Once it's finished he will post all the work to his public git but, since there are a lot of notes and comments in the code now that are not for public consumption it's going to be a while before that happens.

-Dave

[DaveF]

At the moment programming has stalled because of Corona.
He is has been under pressure to get a lot of work done for his real job but is having issues working from home so other projects have fallen off the "to do" list.

I just wanted to post an update that no it's not forgotten. I got an email from him just now letting me know his situation.

Wanted to be done by now, but it's still in the barely started stage

Stay Safe.

-Dave

[k4spr]

As an owner of the piper I still see use cases for it today.

there is nothing better to use the snippets for wallet apps like bluewallet.io - you can watch or spend by only scanning the private or public key and you have a secure backup if your device fail.

the problem with piper v1 is, that it uses the oldschool keygeneration - with them there a higher transaction fees as needed today.

I would would be a dream to have the following feature in v2:

• A setting to generate HD wallet keypairs from a given BIP39 mnemonic seed and optional BIP39 passphrase.
• Access to the seed over a USB-Stick.
  
• manage an optional passphrase and printing over the gui on an attached monitor or Raspi Touchscreen.

This gives more security in case a piper snippet gets lost and options for new use cases.

What do you think about this feature?

[DaveF]

For the moment the project is on indefinite hold.
The programmer I am using is sill under tremendous load from work / life stuff and has not even looked at it since a few weeks after my last post in April.
And he is a friend / programmer I use for other stuff so I know it's not BS.
Since it's a free side thing with no possibility of ever generating a profit for any of us, I am not going to push him till things get a bit more normal.
Once they do, if he can pick it up again great, if not, I'll go hunting for someone else.

That is kind of the issue with things you want to release under the GPL. It gets pushed to the back of the to do list now and then.....

-Dave

edit: the other issue is that the git that he setup for it is a disaster at the moment, I can't even make it public till he cleans it. There are things in there that should not be that have no relation to this project but were put in place for testing, and some drivers that are commercial software that would have to be removed.

[Dabs]

I found this:
https://www.americanpartisan.org/2020/01/r-pi-otp-dryad-true-hardware-rng-how-to/

It talks about using a RPi2 to make one time pads. Not the same, but can be adapted.

[Emerald688]

actually this is a very good idea and breakthrough sir. I also just found out that there is a tool like this. and I also don't know how it works. but can this piper wallet be able to store our bitcoins very safely? and if this is really good, it can be developed again. thanks

[Dabs]

actually this is a very good idea and breakthrough sir. I also just found out that there is a tool like this. and I also don't know how it works. but can this piper wallet be able to store our bitcoins very safely? and if this is really good, it can be developed again. thanks

The Piper Wallet device itself does not (and should not) store any bitcoins or private keys. It generates them and prints it out for you. Then you can store that paper wallet somewhere safe.

[BitCheques]

I am exploring the possibilities of physical bitcoin for El Salvador, the Central African Republic, and any upcoming countries using bitcoin as legal tender -
with large population segments that have limited access to the internet:

Piper Wallet technology seems to be a great start because paper wallets can be generated locally without any record of the private key other than the one printed on the wallet. Check out the discussion at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5399679.0 

Adding a coin hopper (i.e. 10¢ or 25¢ per wallet) could make this profitable. The possibilities are infinite.

[DaveF]

Wish I could tell you that there was progress made with redoing this. But, he kept running into issues and then the unit that I using for testing died.
Once RPi 4 stock starts showing up again and prices get back to normal, I will push Ted to see if he can make some progress on the programming side.

-Dave

[LoyceV]

Piper Wallet technology seems to be a great start because paper wallets can be generated locally without any record of the private key other than the one printed on the wallet.

This doesn't solve the trust problem: the consumer still has to trust that whoever built the "black box" doesn't know the private keys.

[BitCheques]

How is that different from the bitaddress program?

[LoyceV]

How is that different from the bitaddress program?

I don't let someone else make it for me.