Source: signing.js

//  This module provides the signing functionality used by the stellar network
//  The code below may look a little strange... this is because we try to provide
//  the most efficient signing method possible.  First, we try to load the 
//  native ed25519 package for node.js environments, and if that fails we
//  fallback to tweetnacl.js


var actualMethods = {};

/**
 * Use this flag to check if fast signing (provided by `ed25519` package) is available.
 * If your app is signing a large number of transaction or verifying a large number
 * of signatures make sure `ed25519` package is installed.
 */
export const FastSigning = checkFastSigning();

export function sign(data, secretKey) {
  return actualMethods.sign(data, secretKey);
}

export function verify(data, signature, publicKey) {
  return actualMethods.verify(data, signature, publicKey);
}

function checkFastSigning() {
 return typeof window === 'undefined' ? checkFastSigningNode() : checkFastSigningBrowser();
}

function checkFastSigningNode() {
  // NOTE: we use commonjs style require here because es6 imports
  // can only occur at the top level.  thanks, obama.
  let ed25519;
  try {
    ed25519 = require("ed25519");
  } catch (err) {
    return checkFastSigningBrowser();
  }

  actualMethods.sign = (data, secretKey) => ed25519.Sign(Buffer.from(data), secretKey);

  actualMethods.verify = function(data, signature, publicKey) {
    data = Buffer.from(data);
    try {
      return ed25519.Verify(data, signature, publicKey);
    } catch(e) {
      return false;
    }
  };

  return true;
}

function checkFastSigningBrowser() {
    // fallback to tweetnacl.js if we're in the browser or
    // if there was a failure installing ed25519
    let nacl = require("tweetnacl");

    actualMethods.sign = function(data, secretKey) {
      data      = Buffer.from(data);
      data      = new Uint8Array(data.toJSON().data);
      secretKey = new Uint8Array(secretKey.toJSON().data);

      let signature = nacl.sign.detached(data, secretKey);

      return Buffer.from(signature);
    };

    actualMethods.verify = function(data, signature, publicKey) {
      data      = Buffer.from(data);
      data      = new Uint8Array(data.toJSON().data);
      signature = new Uint8Array(signature.toJSON().data);
      publicKey = new Uint8Array(publicKey.toJSON().data);

      return nacl.sign.detached.verify(data, signature, publicKey);
    };

    return false;
}