Glossary · Wallets

Public key.

The verifier counterpart of a private key. Anyone may know it.

In depth

A public key is derived deterministically from a private key. Anyone holding the public key can verify signatures made by the private key without learning the secret. Cardano addresses do not contain the public key itself, but a short hash of it, to keep the address compact.

Example

A validator that requires "addr1…alice" to sign checks the spending transaction’s signature against Alice’s public key.

Next on this path

  1. Private key The secret that authorises spending from an address.
  2. Address The destination encoded into a UTxO. May be a public-key address or a script address.