A Method for Obtaining Digital Signatures and Public-Key Cryptosystems

This landmark paper introduces the RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) cryptosystem, the cornerstone of public-key cryptography. The authors demonstrate that by relying on the difficulty of factoring large composite numbers, two parties can securely exchange information without a pre-shared secret. This work provided the essential framework for digital signatures and secure communication that enables modern internet security, and by extension, secure asset ownership in blockchain networks. The ability to generate public/private key pairs is fundamental to the concept of a crypto-wallet, where the private key serves as the unique authorization factor for moving funds or interacting with smart contracts. The mathematical rigor of RSA remains a model for how cryptographic research transitions into practical applications. In the blockchain context, the RSA cryptosystem (and its successors) provides the identity layer that defines who owns what in an immutable, trustless database.