Embodiments disclosed herein describe systems and methods for authenticating a new device to operate on a network using peer-to-peer protocol key exchange. An existing network node sharing common secret seed information may initially exchange public keys with the new device. After the initial exchange, the network node and the new device may exchange one or more protocol messages. A received protocol message may include a pseudo-random number generated based upon a challenge position in a previously sent protocol message. If the network node determines a match between the received pseudo-random number at the challenge position and a locally generated pseudo-random number, the network node may authenticate the new device to the network.