ERC 1271
Externally Owned Accounts (EOA) can sign messages with their associated private keys, but currently contracts cannot. We propose a standard way for any contracts to verify whether a signature on a behalf of a given contract is valid. This is possible via the implementation of a isValidSignature(hash, signature) function on the signing contract, which can be called to validate a signature.
There are and will be many contracts that want to utilize signed messages for validation of rights-to-move assets or other purposes. In order for these contracts to be able to support non Externally Owned Accounts (i.e., contract owners), we need a standard mechanism by which a contract can indicate whether a given signature is valid or not on its behalf.
One example of an application that requires signatures to be provided would be decentralized exchanges with off-chain orderbook, where buy/sell orders are signed messages. In these applications, EOAs sign orders, signaling their desire to buy/sell a given asset and giving explicit permissions to the exchange smart contracts to conclude a trade via a signature. When it comes to contracts however, regular signatures are not possible since contracts do not possess a private key, hence this proposal.
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