Keystore generated by ethers.js takes time to unlock vs Parity keystore is quick

Also raised #11571 in openethereum.

Keystore generated by parity account new:

Parity Keystore
{"id":"d24503a6-8847-199e-fa5e-cf2859e48bb6","version":3,"crypto":{"cipher":"aes-128-ctr","cipherparams":{"iv":"88decf833914efe2897083b3b2400ab0"},"ciphertext":"472d8a51e054374463d016c682102649d8cf56dfbd6cbfa4f04e849e9e30f5d2","kdf":"pbkdf2","kdfparams":{"c":10240,"dklen":32,"prf":"hmac-sha256","salt":"3923cf5f23f653b79ca71134fd974a001bb6adf608fa7020c1f9f345f741c26d"},"mac":"4789351f22f0d74f937699b7579e4786890fdb5b89884583ca8dd2d56bb969dc"},"address":"36560493644fbb79f1c38d12ff096f7ec5d333b7","name":"","meta":"{}"}

Keystore generated using ethers.js library:

Custom keystore (generated using ethers.js):
{"id":"f786d469-b7ef-4dce-9a19-d67437c1f4dc","version":3,"crypto":{"cipher":"aes-128-ctr","cipherparams":{"iv":"88c0756012bb0e104a19472e1dfebd13"},"ciphertext":"6e1df9d2866b8e2fe126f45d0f371035facebee8e7c1d06605b3d7bb81403144","kdf":"scrypt","kdfparams":{"dklen":32,"p":1,"n":131072,"r":8,"salt":"9b63e8032242bf78c9a0aeaabd2f05fb75a34851472056a46b20352ca57516ef"},"mac":"0928b53c317cca2252ff4b60c7ef2b6b2a3d9a47783e5c33beecdb56d7862aca"},"address":"c8e1f3b9a0cdfcef9ffd2343b943989a22517b26","name":"","meta":"{}"}

The password for both keystores is “12” exclusive of inverted commas. If you try unlocking both keystores, the parity keystore is unlocked quickly while Ethers.js keystore takes lot of time to get unlocked.

When I load the custom keystore in the keys folder, and start parity with unlock flag followed by wallet address (0xc8e1f3b9a0cdfcef9ffd2343b943989a22517b26) it takes a while for parity to first load up

2020-03-16 10:14:36 UTC Starting Parity-Ethereum/v2.7.2-unstable-55c90d401-20200205/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/rustc1.39.0
2020-03-16 10:14:36 UTC Keys path /tmp/parity0/keys/Era_Swap_Network
2020-03-16 10:14:36 UTC DB path /tmp/parity0/chains/Era_Swap_Network/db/54aabb10bc00d84f
2020-03-16 10:14:36 UTC State DB configuration: fast
2020-03-16 10:14:36 UTC Operating mode: active
2020-03-16 10:15:21 UTC Not preparing block; cannot sign.

You can see about 45 seconds to unlock the keystore.

But when I use a keystore generated by parity account new (0x36560493644fbb79f1c38d12ff096f7ec5d333b7), the unlock is very quick…

Starting Parity-Ethereum/v2.7.2-unstable-55c90d401-20200205/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/rustc1.39.0
2020-03-16 10:16:01 UTC Keys path /tmp/parity0/keys/Era_Swap_Network
2020-03-16 10:16:01 UTC DB path /tmp/parity0/chains/Era_Swap_Network/db/54aabb10bc00d84f
2020-03-16 10:16:01 UTC State DB configuration: fast
2020-03-16 10:16:01 UTC Operating mode: active
2020-03-16 10:16:01 UTC Not preparing block; cannot sign.

Due to the time taken for unlocking the keystore, the node wasn’t able to author any block using the slow keystore. And it gets stuck on the block which has it’s turn to author.

I tried hard to spot the difference in both keystores, only saw that the quick keystore had the kdfparams including c property while the slower one didn’t have.

Is there a way to generate a fast unlocking keystore like the one parity generates?

[zemse]

Opps! my bad…

> await checkTime(64);
Object { encrypting: 0.072, decrypting: 0.599 }

It’s a quick keystore. I’ll make sure that it has a very difficult password when using this, since in my use case password won’t be entered again and again.

[ricmoo]

You aren’t changing the N; look more closely at the example, { scrypt: { N: 64 } }. You are using { N: 64 }. 😃