Add support of secp256k1 key pairs

[alexauroradev]

The rollout of EVM feature implies support of EVM-native keys generation, encoding, signing and verification. Users that are familiar with Ethereum should be able to use their accounts for working with NEAR EVM implementation.

[mikedotexe]

With Aurora launching, this is likely becoming high priority

[mehtaphysical]

It sounds like secp256k1 support in nearcore has been pushed until next quarter.

We should take this time to audit the elliptic package. If it looks good we can replace tweetnacl with it to prepare the way for secp256k1 support.

[bowenwang1996]

It sounds like secp256k1 support in nearcore has been pushed until next quarter.

Can you elaborate on that? On the account level we already support secp256k1 key for a while now.

[mehtaphysical]

@bowenwang1996 that is just what I heard when I asked about this.

I've been messing around with adding a secp256k1 key with this code:

async function run() {
  const account = await near.account("rnm.testnet");
  const ec = new EC("secp256k1");
  const kp = ec.genKeyPair();

  const publicKey = `secp256k1:${base_encode(
    kp.getPublic().getX().toBuffer()
  )}`;
  // const kp = KeyPair.fromRandom("ed25519");
  // const publicKey = kp.getPublicKey().toString();

  const res = await account.addKey(publicKey);
  console.log(res);
}

But am getting the following error:

[-32602] Invalid params: Failed to decode transaction: Unexpected variant index: 31

If I do the same thing, replacing secp256k1 with ed25519 everything works fine:

async function run() {
  const account = await near.account("rnm.testnet");
  const ec = new EC("ed25519");
  const kp = ec.genKeyPair();

  const publicKey = `ed25519:${base_encode(
    kp.getPublic().getX().toBuffer()
  )}`;
  // const kp = KeyPair.fromRandom("ed25519");
  // const publicKey = kp.getPublicKey().toString();

  const res = await account.addKey(publicKey);
  console.log(res);
}

I can play around with it more.

[bowenwang1996]

That is probably a borsh serialization issue in near-api-js

[mehtaphysical]

Created issue with borsh-js. near/borsh-js#19

Waiting for feedback, then will implement a fix and implement this change

[mikedotexe]

I think we still need this, and want to bump it. Been fielding some questions from builders and believe it'd be good to remember it.

This is a good lead:
https://www.npmjs.com/package/@ethersproject/signing-key

[samingle]

Have a draft of this in #810