Orca Crypto
Foundations term

Public key

Derived from your private key, and used to verify your signatures.

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Updated 2026-08-303 min readDefinition
Definition

Derived from your private key, and used to verify your signatures.

Your public key comes from your private key through one way math. You can go forward easily and backward not at all. That asymmetry is the foundation of every cryptocurrency.

Your address is usually a shortened, checksummed version of your public key. Sharing it reveals nothing that endangers your funds.

In practice

Signing a message with your private key lets anyone check with your public key that you sent it, without ever seeing the secret.

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