[Protocol Change] Consider SIMD-0048 (ECDSA with secp256r1)

[ripatel-fd]

Solana Labs merged an improvement proposal which adds a native program, the secp256r1 Weierstrass curve, and the ECDSA verify routine (SEC 1).

This issue serves to keep track. It is unclear whether Firedancer is going to implement this proposal.

Resources:

• SIMD-0048: Native Program for secp256r1 signature verification solana-foundation/solana-improvement-documents#48
• https://github.com/Bunkr-2FA/SIMD-48-Testing

As always, a considerable amount of effort would go into compatibility testing targeting:

• Control flow equivalence & checks
• Elliptic curve group point representations & algorithms
• How does malleability in field elements affect checks

[ripatel-fd]

cc @0x0ece @lheeger-jump

[ripatel-fd]

The quickest route might be using OpenSSL's ECDSA verify routine, since OpenSSL is already a dependency. Unfortunately OpenSSL requires dynamic allocations to function. It is unclear whether our OpenSSL verify routine is identical to the one Solana Labs would use. The testing by Bunkr-2FA (linked above) was not yet proven to be exhaustive.