Glossary
Public Key Cryptography
An asymmetric scheme where each user holds a private key and a derived public key, used to sign transactions and prove control of an address.
Public-key cryptography underpins every wallet. The private key is kept secret; the public key is shared. The owner uses the private key to sign a transaction, and anyone can verify the signature using the public key.
Blockchains use elliptic-curve signatures (secp256k1 on Bitcoin and Ethereum, ed25519 on Solana). The address you publish is derived from the public key by hashing, so revealing the address does not expose the underlying public key until you first spend from it.