> - right, it expands by half but i believe it's just as secure as the one-time pad [this is what i want to verify]
This is the easiest bit to critique / attack.
For OTP to work the pad needs to be properly random; the pad needs to be bigger than the plain text.
Expanding something else probably stops it being properly random.
People get hung up on OTP because PROVABLY SECURE. They are secure, but they're also cumbersome to use.