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Blockchain & Crypto vocabulary · Wallets & Keys

Public key

Meaning in blockchain & crypto, with examples

/ˌpʌb.lɪk ˈkiː/nounCore term

In blockchain & crypto, public key means: A key mathematically created from a private key that can be shared safely. Others use it to check your signatures, and wallet addresses are usually derived from it.

In Turkish: açık anahtar, genel anahtar

How it is used

Mostly used in technical explanations of how wallets and signatures work, usually together with private key. In daily work people share an address rather than the raw public key. The pair is part of public-key cryptography.

Example sentences

  1. The network uses your public key to verify that the signature really came from you.

  2. It is safe to share a public key, but never the private key that goes with it.

Common collocations

  • derive a public key
  • public-key cryptography
  • public and private keys
  • share a public key
  • private keyA secret number that proves you own a wallet and lets you sign transactions. Anyone who has the private key can move the funds, so it must never be shared.
  • wallet addressA string of letters and numbers that shows where crypto can be sent, similar to an account number. On Ethereum, for example, addresses start with 0x.
  • hashA short, fixed-length code produced from any piece of data by a mathematical function. Even a tiny change to the data produces a completely different hash, which makes tampering easy to detect.
  • walletAn app or device that stores the keys you need to access and move your crypto. The coins themselves stay on the blockchain; the wallet only holds the keys that control them.

More terms: Wallets & Keys

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