A public key is the half of the public/private keypair that is publicized. Anyone can check that a signature is correct, but they can't generate the signature themselves.
2
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2answers
40 views
Integrity of ensuring the correct recipient of a BTC public address?
If a hacker gains access to a website and proceeds to vandalize the website, including changing the public-key of a BTC wallet, this would direct all payments to the hacker. Is this a security risk ...
2
votes
1answer
83 views
How to remove private keys from wallet.dat and create “receive only” wallet?
I want to create a wallet for monitoring incoming transactions. So it should be receive only wallet that will be place on hosting, that is potentially not secure. If I understand it well, this won't ...
3
votes
3answers
387 views
Is a private key used up when part of the bitcoins it controls are sent?
Here is my current understanding of Bitcoin:
I have 10 bitcoins in my wallet.
If I send 5 bitcoins to someone else, I am sending the private key from my wallet to somebody's public key address.
...
2
votes
2answers
65 views
When will the public key of an address used in the network?
On block explorer there are some address with public key available, and some without.
(e.g. this one has public key:
http://blockexplorer.com/address/1HBheYzvX7NDtcwVrMS7gxReNRVezYS7w2 ,
and this ...
2
votes
1answer
148 views
How do I find the public key of a bitcoin address?
I want to know the public key of my bitcoin address, (e.g. 13mtYzgprJuLUWw1EVWSPPuC88q7fGuSX1), how do I do that?
1
vote
1answer
212 views
How Would This Procedure Be Performed? Transfer to Offline wallet
I've read alot of questions before I posted this... What I want to do is take my wallet from blockchain.info that contains a few bitcoins, and "store" it offline, however I have some specific ...
1
vote
1answer
94 views
If addresses are hashes of public keys, how are signatures verified?
I've skimmed through the https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Protocol_specification and it seems that when sending someone bitcoins, I would sign the transaction data (not quite sure which parts exactly) with ...
4
votes
1answer
63 views
How many different formats can a public address take?
I'm creating an offline index to report off of the block chain. I plan on indexing each transaction based on the address displayed in the TX.
Are all addresses Base58? I believe I also read about ...
2
votes
1answer
86 views
Where can I look to see a revealed public key?
I've read that pub keys aren't exposed until they're spent from. Can someone show me an example of a transaction prior to the pub key being exposed and then after? Where do i look?
2
votes
2answers
153 views
Why is it impossible to derive public key from address?
This is my first bitcoin transaction.
Why this transaction doesn't show my public key? help message on the same page says that,
It's impossible to determine the public key from a Bitcoin ...
2
votes
1answer
177 views
Is it technically possible to create and use dynamic private key - public key pair and use it with bitcoin?
Is it technically possible to create and use dynamic private key - public key pair and use it with bitcoin?
I am not sure anything conceptually similar to this already exists. Yet, "dynamic" private ...
0
votes
2answers
207 views
When importing private keys, will compressed or uncompressed format be used?
I am looking into implementing support for compressed public keys on Vanity Pool. However, I have my concerns about importing solutions into a desired vanity address under that format. From what I can ...
1
vote
1answer
155 views
What does it mean by Public Key on the Vanitygen Pool?
When I wanted to request a vanity address from https://vanitypool.appspot.com/ it asked me for my public key. I tried my main address, but it said it was too short. What should I put there?
2
votes
1answer
273 views
How do I Base58 Checked encode / decode an address in C#? What does “normalize leading zeros” mean?
I am trying to encode and decode a Base58 address in C#. The following function is a start, but it has a few issues:
This code does not normalize leading zeros (what does that look like?)
If this ...
5
votes
3answers
134 views
How does ImportPrivateKey get the Address if I don't explicitly send it?
Suppose I just used vanitygen to create this key:
Pattern: 1a
Address: e1aMGYXuGpUwDGH9gz3ZBs8UH746nRdEk6
Privkey: 5KhCszBi22hEZZixPEQkLAMtUVkxbGaxBFsH7a9iefqrxHmSXgH
All I had to do to import this ...
2
votes
0answers
55 views
What are the preferred UI images for Bitcoin Address & private key and multi-signature key?
How should I visually distinguish between the different types of keys available for the end user?
So far the common keys I've come across are
Private key (not to be shared)
Bitcoin address (to be ...
3
votes
1answer
148 views
What would happen if two public keys had the same Base58 hash?
If two different public keys had the same Base 58 hash, what would happen?
Could one key spend money in the other account?
What would happen to the monies received by the shared base58 hash?
1
vote
1answer
148 views
What to save in a wallet?
I am programming a specialty wallet software. I am able to generate a EC_key and valid bitcoin addresses. I am not sure what to save to a wallet file in order to recover the EC_key in the future. Must ...
6
votes
3answers
480 views
What would happen if you send bitcoins to a non-existent Bitcoin address?
If one were to send bitcoins to an address that has not been created yet, what would happen? Would the coins be lost forever? Would they just sit there until the address and key pair are generated?
5
votes
1answer
141 views
Generating addresses starting with certain characters such as “JoeAnonymousUserB7pMqyVa8JRcpZdCQLQ”
Similar to how the SHA256 hash competition exists to validate a transaction, I wonder if this concept can be ported to addresses, so that the first few characters is significant to a human reader.
...
7
votes
1answer
498 views
What is a private key and a public key?
What exactly is a private key and public key in relation to Bitcoin? What are they, how are they used, and how does one find out what their private and public keys are?
4
votes
2answers
257 views
Storage of Private Keys
Most web apps that accept bitcoin (whether it's an exchange, a gambling site, etc) provide the user with a public address for depositing bitcoins into their account.
How are these web applications ...
3
votes
2answers
324 views
What exactly happens when a new wallet is created?
I am asking for what is being created when there is a new wallet created.
And the second part of my question is considering public key. Is the public key the same thing as the address? I read that ...
2
votes
1answer
111 views
Public key with 142 characters?
I've read that public keys that bitcoin uses have 130 characters (65 bytes), but on the page: http://blockexplorer.com/tx/7e9bf03454b9ff80974d39d02a8088154e60ee65726e239f70341366d1a1ccf7
I've found a ...
4
votes
1answer
223 views
What can a person do with special private keys?
The Alert message in the Standard Client will only be displayed if it is signed with a correct ECDSA private key. Should anyone get that private key, they would be able to propagate any alert through ...
8
votes
2answers
446 views
How would we know the real Satoshi?
Should Satoshi decide to reveal his or her true identity, how can one know the person is the real creator of Bitcoin, rather than a person who hacked the forum login, email address or the like? In ...
16
votes
2answers
1k views
What is a compressed Bitcoin key?
The standard Bitcoin client in version 0.6 apparently introduces compressed keys.
What are they? Are there any drawbacks to using them? Any incompatibilities with older software? Reductions in ...
