GoKawiilAnthropic's Claude AI traces NIST ECDSA curve seeds to UTC timestamps
Anthropic reports that its Claude AI model helped determine the origin of mysterious 'seed' values used to generate NIST's standard elliptic curves for ECDSA, a widely used cryptographic signature standard. The seeds, published without explanation by the NSA in 2000, were long rumored to derive from a humorous passphrase chosen by NSA employee Jerry Solinas, but the analysis found they actually correspond to UTC timestamps.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The finding closes a two-decade-old open question in the cryptographic community about whether NIST's curves could have been deliberately weakened by the NSA, since unexplained seed values fueled suspicion after the Dual_EC_DRBG backdoor scandal. Anthropic frames this as reassurance rather than new security risk, noting most cryptographers already trusted the curves; the episode also serves as a demonstration of AI being applied to historical technical puzzles.
- Anthropic's Claude AI was used to help resolve the long-unexplained origin of NIST ECDSA curve seed values.
- The seeds, set by the NSA in 2000, were found to be derived from UTC timestamps rather than an arbitrary or hidden process.
- Researchers say the discovery doesn't change existing trust in the curves but resolves a long-standing cryptographic mystery.
Source: anthropic.com, 2026-10-16
Published there as: “Claude reveals ECDSA curve origins”
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