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If I understand correctly when we send a transaction, we send an unsigned part m and a signature consisting of v, r, s. Each node verifies the signature by checking:
hash(m,r) * publicKey + r = s * generator
the generator is known, where as the public key cannot be restored from the address and has to be computed. This is where the v part of the signature comes in. Can someone explain how is v defined and how does it help us retrieve the public key? Thanks a lot.
Your r here is calculated as the X co-ord of some point R % the curve order n.
Due to the nature of the curve, there are however 4 valid points that could all have this X co-ord, and so the v is used to define which one of those it is. It saves us having to calculate (up to) all 4 possibilities in order to recover the correct signing key.
Further, w/r/t ethereum, that extra byte of data is used to encode a small measure of replay protection, as defined in EIP155, about which you can read more here.
