Ether-Link

A lightweight Rust library focused on enabling secure communication between Ethereum address owners. Ether-Link provides simple yet powerful tools for Ethereum key management, message signing, and signature verification - allowing Ethereum wallet owners to securely exchange authenticated messages.

Core Focus

Ether-Link is specifically designed to facilitate:

Secure Communication between Ethereum address owners
Identity Verification using cryptographic signatures
Message Authentication ensuring only valid Ethereum address owners can participate
Decentralized Trust leveraging Ethereum's cryptographic primitives

Features

Key Management: Generate new Ethereum key pairs with compressed and uncompressed public keys
Address Derivation: Deterministically generate Ethereum addresses from public keys
Message Signing: Sign messages using Ethereum's standard signing format
Signature Verification: Verify message signatures against Ethereum addresses
Timestamped Messages: Automatic timestamp inclusion to prevent replay attacks

Upcoming Features (Next Version)

Message Encryption: End-to-end encryption for messages between Ethereum addresses
- ECIES (Elliptic Curve Integrated Encryption Scheme) implementation
- Ability to encrypt messages that only specific Ethereum addresses can decrypt
- Support for both text and binary data encryption
- Simple API for encrypt/decrypt operations using existing key pairs
Batch Operations: Ability to sign or verify multiple messages efficiently
Extended Compatibility: Support for additional Ethereum signature standards and wallets

Installation

Add this to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]

ether-link = "0.0.1"

Usage Examples

Secure Communication Flow

Ether-Link enables a simple communication pattern between Ethereum address owners:

Sender signs a message with their Ethereum private key
Recipient verifies the signature using the sender's Ethereum address
Communication is authenticated without requiring password exchange or central authorities

Generating a New Key Pair

use ether_link::EthKeyPair;

fn main() {
    // Generate a fresh Ethereum key pair
    let keypair = EthKeyPair::new();
    
    println!("Private Key: {}", keypair.privkey);
    println!("Ethereum Address: {}", keypair.address);
    println!("Compressed Public Key: {}", keypair.pubkey_compressed);
    println!("Uncompressed Public Key: {}", keypair.pubkey_uncompressed);
}

Signing a Message

use ether_link::EthKeyPair;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let keypair = EthKeyPair::new();
    let message = "Hello, Ethereum!";
    
    let signature_json = keypair.sign_message(message).await?;
    println!("Signature: {}", signature_json);
    
    Ok(())
}

Verifying a Signature

use ether_link::verify_ethereum_signature;
use serde_json::Value;

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    // Assume signature_json is the output from sign_message
    let signature_json: Value = serde_json::from_str(&signature_json_str)?;
    
    let address = signature_json["address"].as_str().unwrap();
    let signed_message = signature_json["signed_message"].as_str().unwrap();
    let signature = signature_json["signature"].as_str().unwrap();
    
    let is_valid = verify_ethereum_signature(
        signed_message,
        signature,
        address
    )?;
    
    println!("Signature is valid: {}", is_valid);
    
    Ok(())
}

Key Components

EthKeyPair: Core structure for generating and managing Ethereum key pairs
sign_message(): Async method to sign messages with timestamps for security
verify_ethereum_signature(): Function to verify signed messages against addresses

Applications

Decentralized Identity: Authenticate users by their Ethereum addresses
Secure Messaging: Build messaging systems where sender identity is cryptographically verified
dApp Authentication: Implement authentication flows without passwords
Smart Contract Interaction: Sign messages intended for on-chain verification
Wallet-to-Wallet Communication: Enable direct secure messaging between wallet owners

Security Notes

Private keys are stored in memory as hex strings. Handle with appropriate security measures
The library adds timestamps to signed messages by default to prevent replay attacks
Always verify signatures against known addresses before trusting signed messages

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Fork the project
Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
Open a Pull Request

ether-link 0.0.2