Type Definition secp256k1_abc_sys::secp256k1_context

type secp256k1_context = secp256k1_context_struct;

Opaque data structure that holds context information (precomputed tables etc.).

The purpose of context structures is to cache large precomputed data tables that are expensive to construct, and also to maintain the randomization data for blinding.

Do not create a new context object for each operation, as construction is far slower than all other API calls (~100 times slower than an ECDSA verification).

A constructed context can safely be used from multiple threads simultaneously, but API call that take a non-const pointer to a context need exclusive access to it. In particular this is the case for secp256k1_context_destroy and secp256k1_context_randomize.

Regarding randomization, either do it once at creation time (in which case you do not need any locking for the other calls), or use a read-write lock.