Keys

Public and Private Keys

  • A Private Keyis a big number derived from complex math that is used to verify that you own bitcoin. In bitcoin, posession is 10/10ths of the law. In practice, it is not so different from a

  • A Public Key is a big number, derived from a private key, that gives someone the ability to share information about a private key with someone else, without them having to know the private key.

  • TL;DR:

    • Your Private Key you keep to yourself

    • Your Public Key you use to share information with others.

Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins

  • Eventually, you will get your own private key. It will probably be given to you as a collection of words called a seed, or seed phrase.

  • Anyone with that information has access to all of your bitcoin, so you need to be very careful with it once you begin to have any significant amount on it.

Relevant Projects: