Compact Representation of Elliptic Curve Points over F(sub (2 sup n))

finite fields, elliptic curves, cryptography A method is described to represent points on elliptic curves over F2n‚ in the context of elliptic curve cryptosystems‚ using n bits. The method allows for full recovery of the x and y components of the point. This improves on the naive representation using 2n bits and on a previously known compressed representation using n + 1 bits. Since n bits are necessary to represent a point in the general case of a cryptosystem over F2n, the representation described in this note is minimal.