High-level

v2 massively simplifies internals, improves security, reduces bundle size and lays path for the future. To simplify upgrading, upgrade first to curves 1.9.x. It would show deprecations in vscode-like text editor.

• The package is now ESM-only. ESM can finally be loaded from common.js on node v20.19+
  • Node v20.19 is now the minimum required version
  • Package imports now work correctly in bundler-less environments, such as browsers
  • Reduces npm package size (traffic consumed): 354KB => 300KB
  • Reduces unpacked npm size (on-disk space): 2.1MB => 1.2MB
• Make bundle sizes smaller, compared to v1.x: -4KB for schnorr, -5.3KB for ristretto255, -9.4KB for x448
• .js extension must be used for all modules
  • Old: @noble/curves/ed25519
  • New: @noble/curves/ed25519.js
  • This simplifies working in browsers natively without transpilers

New features

• webcrypto: create friendly noble-like wrapper over built-in WebCrypto
• oprf: implement RFC 9497 OPRFs (oblivious pseudorandom functions)
  • We support p256, p384, p521, ristretto255 and decaf448
• weierstrass, edwards: add isValidSecretKey, isValidPublicKey
• misc: add Brainpool curves: brainpoolP256r1, brainpoolP384r1, brainpoolP512r1

Changes

• Most methods now expect Uint8Array, string hex inputs are prohibited
  • The change simplifies reasoning, improves security and reduces malleability
  • Point.fromHex now expects string-only hex inputs, use Point.fromBytes for Uint8Array
• Breaking changes of ECDSA (secp256k1, p256, p384...):
  • sign, verify: Switch to prehashed messages. Instead of
    messageHash, the methods now expect unhashed message.
    To bring back old behavior, use option {prehash: false}
  • sign, verify: Switch to lowS signatures by default.
    This change doesn't affect secp256k1, which has been using lowS since beginning.
    To bring back old behavior, use option {lowS: true}
  • sign, verify: Switch to Uint8Array signatures (format: 'compact') by default.
  • verify: der format must be explicitly specified in {format: 'der'}.
    This reduces malleability
  • verify: prohibit Signature-instance signature. User must now always do
    signature.toBytes()
• Breaking changes of BLS signatures (bls12-381, bn254):
  • Move getPublicKey, sign, verify, signShortSignature etc into two new namespaces:
    bls.longSignatures (G1 pubkeys, G2 sigs) and bls.shortSignatures (G1 sigs, G2 pubkeys).
  • verifyBatch now expects array of inputs {message: ..., publicKey: ...}[]
• Curve changes:
  • Massively simplify curve creation, split it into point creation & sig generator creation
  • New methods are weierstrass() + ecdsa() / edwards() + eddsa()
  • weierstrass / edwards expect simplified curve params (Fp became p)
  • ecdsa / eddsa expect Point class and hash
  • Remove unnecessary Fn argument in pippenger
• modular changes:
  • Field#fromBytes() now validates elements to be in 0..order-1 range
• Upgrade typescript compilation env to ts5.9 and es2022
• Massively improve error messages, make them more descriptive

Renamings

• Module changes
  • p256, p384, p521 modules have been moved into nist
  • jubjub module has been moved into misc
• Point changes
  • ExtendedPoint, ProjectivePoint => Point
  • Point coordinates (projective / extended) from px/ex, py/ey, pz/ez, et => X, Y, Z, T
  • Point.normalizeZ, Point.msm => separate methods in abstract/curve.js submodule
  • Point.fromPrivateKey() got removed, use Point.BASE.multiply() and Point.Fn.fromBytes(secretKey)
  • toRawBytes, fromRawBytes => toBytes, fromBytes
  • RistrettoPoint => ristretto255.Point, DecafPoiont => decaf448.Point
• Signature (ECDSA) changes
  • toCompactRawBytes, toDERRawBytes => toBytes('compact'), toBytes('der')
  • toCompactHex, toDERHex => toHex('compact'), toHex('der')
  • fromCompact, fromDER => fromBytes(format), fromHex(format)
• utils changes
  • randomPrivateKey => randomSecretKey
  • utils.precompute, Point#_setWindowSize => Point#precompute
  • edwardsToMontgomery => utils.toMontgomery
  • edwardsToMontgomeryPriv => utils.toMontgomerySecret
• Rename all curve-specific hash-to-curve methods to *curve*_hasher.
  Example: secp256k1.hashToCurve => secp256k1_hasher.hashToCurve()
• Massive type renamings and improvements

Removed features

• Point#multiplyAndAddUnsafe, Point#hasEvenY
• CURVE property with all kinds of random stuff. Point.CURVE() now replaces it, but only provides
  curve parameters
• Remove pasta, bn254_weierstrass (NOT pairing-based bn254) curves
• Field.MASK
• utils.normPrivateKeyToScalar

Full Changelog: 1.9.6...2.0.0

• edwards: rename newly introduced / experimental toMontgomeryPriv => toMontgomerySecret
• weierstrass: Add back SignatureConstructor
• More deprecations and preparations for v2

Full Changelog: 1.9.6...1.9.7

• edwards: expose nBitLength, nByteLength
• Experimental CurveLengths interface: rename secret, public to secretKey, publicKey
• Point precomputes: initialize calculation earlier, within weierstrass() method (still lazy, waits for first call)
• bls: new internal tower from v2
• ed448: Ensure there are two different Fn fields with different BITS length for ed448 / decaf448

Full Changelog: 1.9.5...1.9.6

• Fix rollup warnings from gh-205
• add back aliases for secp256r1 / secp384r1 / secp521r1 from gh-203
• bring back CURVE.nByteLength from gh-202
• More preparations and deprecations for future v2 release

Full Changelog: 1.9.4...1.9.5

• Fix gh-201: invalid renaming of ProjConstructor
• Add more deprecations for the upcoming v2

Full Changelog: 1.9.3...1.9.4

The release contains bugfixes and a few improvements which pave the way for upcoming v2.0.

There are lots of renamings and API adjustments; but all old code would work as-is. The code would visually flagged as "deprecated" (using jsdoc flag) in typescript-supported code environments, which makes it easy to upgrade to new versions.

• Rename *privateKey to *secretKey everywhere for consistency with post-quantum and non-noble libraries
• Add keygen method to curves which creates both secret and public keys
• weierstrass: make endomorphism generic and work for all Koblitz curves
• weierstrass: add fromBytes and toBytes to Signature, deprecate fromDER, fromCompact, toDERRawBytes, toCompactRawBytes
• edwards: move edwardsToMontgomery into utils.toMontgomery
• decaf, ristretto: new interface which makes it more similar to other Points
• ed448: add ED448_TORSION_GROUP
• curve: add curve.info interface to all curves for better interop.
• curve: change public wNAF API
• modular: add sqrt9mod16
• hash-to-curve: move all hashers into _hasher props. E.g. secp256k1_hasher
• test: Add ACVP test vectors

Sensitive code changes

• wNAF: mostly renamings
• Field bound validation: for scalars (Fn) and curve fields (Fp)

Full Changelog: 1.9.2...1.9.3

The release contains bugfixes and a few improvements which pave the way for upcoming v2.0.

• edwards, weierstrass: big refactor, implement much simpler ECDSA / EdDSA API. #192
  • Old code is still working until v2
  • New API is experimental until next patch release
  • toRawBytes => toBytes
  • ExtendedPoint, ProjectivePoint => Point
  • Point now has Fp and Fn static properties which are its fields
• weierstrass: add support for ECDSA with cofactor>1 curves
• weierstrass: add support for points having x:0
• bls: big refactor, improve types, add new bls.longSignatures and bls.shortSignatures APIs
  • Old code is still working until v2
  • New API is experimental until next patch release
• utils: reuse noble-hashes utils
• Use randomBytes and hmac from noble-hashes by default

Sensitive code changes

• edwards, weierstrass: refactor logic for range checks
• weierstrass: improve sign() logic for k generation
• weierstrass: harden multiplyUnsafe, stop using multiplyAndAddUnsafe

New contributors

• Add a test that BLS12-381 augmented signatures can be verified by @randombit in #191

Full Changelog: 1.9.1...1.9.2

• abstract/fft - new experimental implementation of FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) / NTT
• abstract/edwards: verify curve parameters (equation) on initialization
• abstract/weierstrass: verify curve parameters (discriminant) on initialization
• abstract/weierstrass: improve getSharedSecret arg validation for rare curves
• abstract/weierstrass: fix invalid sig recovery decoding length for rare curves
• abstract/modular: improve sqrt calculation
• x25519, x448: accept more valid inputs for priv / pub keys
• secp256k1: improve tree-shaking

Full Changelog: 1.9.0...1.9.1

The release contains bugfixes and a few improvements which pave the way for upcoming v2.0.

• Modules are now available with .js extension
  • Old: @noble/curves/ed25519
  • New: @noble/curves/ed25519.js
  • Old path is still available
  • This simplifies working in browsers natively without transpilers
• poseidon: add support for sponge, grain LFSR
• p256, p384, p521: merge into new "nist" module
• weierstrass: prohibit y=0 when initializing
• hash-to-curve: use inv0 everywhere to ensure ZERO elements are returned in exceptional cases
• modular: improve sqrt logic (tonelliShanks, legendre)
• modular: fix FpInvertBatch creating arrays with holes instead of arrays with undefined
• pasta: deprecate curves
• update noble-hashes to 1.8.0

Full Changelog: 1.8.2...1.9.0

• Important: this release adjusts wNAF scalar multiplication logic
  • The adjustment is small (deduplication), but wNAF is sensitive code handling private keys
  • Verify the change yourself #184
• edwards: (ed25519, ed448) always use complete formula in add()
• edwards: (ed25519, ed448) ban points with z=0 (zero points have z=1)
• ed25519: use slower, but more precise CURVE.a definition
• weierstrass: freeze Signature on creation
• weierstrass: Fix curve in Palemoon browser #176
• hash-to-curve: throw better error for 0 in mapToCurve
• tower: fix wrong Fp12 fields type
• misc: new module. Contains jubjub and babyjubjub.
• utils: use built-in Uint8Array toHex / fromHex when available. Gives 13x speed-up on 256b arrays, 20x speed-up on 32kb arrays

Other changes

• Update noble-hashes to 1.7.2
• Reduce standalone file build size by 0.5kb
• Standalone build files are now attested in CI. Check out README for verification guide
• Typescript source can now be used without compilation in node.js v24, due to erasableSyntaxOnly

New Contributors

• @tuantran-genetica made their first contribution in #181
• @kigawas made their first contribution in #183

Acknowledgments

Thanks to @ChALkeR for spotting edwards bug.

Full Changelog: 1.8.1...1.8.2