Blockchain Foundations
Wallets, keys, and transactions · 1/3

Your keys, your coins

private keysecret, never sharepublic keyderived from privateaddressshareable

A wallet does not actually store coins. It stores a private key, a huge secret number that proves you own addresses on the chain. From the private key your wallet derives a public key, and from that your address.

Anyone can send funds to your address. Only the holder of the private key can spend them. Lose the key and the funds are gone forever. Share the key and anyone can take everything.