Cryptocurrency blockchain networks safeguard digital assets using cryptographic keys, with wallets playing a critical role in generating, storing, and managing these keys. Wallets, typically categorized as hot and cold, offer varying degrees of security and convenience. However, they are generally software-based applications running on microcontrollers. Consequently, they are vulnerable to malware and side-channel attacks, allowing perpetrators to extract private keys by targeting critical algorithms, such as ECC, which processes private keys to generate public keys and authorize transactions. To address these issues, this work presents EthVault, the first hardware architecture for an Ethereum hierarchically deterministic cold wallet, featuring hardware implementations of key algorithms for secure key generation. Also, an ECC architecture resilient to side-channel and timing attacks is proposed. Moreover, an architecture of the child key derivation function, a fundamental component of cryptocurrency wallets, is proposed. The design minimizes resource usage, meeting market demand for small, portable cryptocurrency wallets. FPGA implementation results validate the feasibility of the proposed approach. The ECC architecture exhibits uniform execution behavior across varying inputs, while the complete design utilizes only 27%, 7%, and 6% of LUTs, registers, and RAM blocks, respectively, on a Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ FPGA.

翻译：加密货币区块链网络通过加密密钥保护数字资产，其中钱包在生成、存储和管理这些密钥方面发挥着关键作用。钱包通常分为热钱包和冷钱包，提供不同程度的安全性和便利性。然而，它们通常是运行在微控制器上的软件应用程序，因此容易受到恶意软件和侧信道攻击的攻击，攻击者可通过针对关键算法（如处理私钥以生成公钥并授权交易的ECC）来提取私钥。为解决这些问题，本研究提出了EthVault，这是首个用于以太坊分层确定性冷钱包的硬件架构，其特点是对关键算法进行了硬件实现以实现安全的密钥生成。此外，还提出了一种能够抵抗侧信道攻击和时序攻击的ECC架构。同时，本研究还提出了子密钥派生函数的架构，这是加密货币钱包的基本组成部分。该设计最大限度地减少了资源使用，满足了市场对小型便携式加密货币钱包的需求。FPGA实现结果验证了所提方法的可行性。ECC架构在不同输入下表现出均匀的执行行为，而完整设计在Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ FPGA上仅分别使用了LUT、寄存器和RAM块的27%、7%和6%。