3.1 Encoding

An integer 0 < S < L - 1 is encoded in little-endian form as a b-bit string ENC(S).

An element (x,y) of E is encoded as a b-bit string called ENC(x,y), which is the (b-1)-bit encoding of y concatenated with one bit that is 1 if x is negative and 0 if x is not negative.

The encoding of GF(p) is used to define "negative" elements of GF(p): specifically, x is negative if the (b-1)-bit encoding of x is lexicographically larger than the (b-1)-bit encoding of -x.