All terms
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.
Signing a message with your private key lets anyone check with your public key that you sent it, without ever seeing the secret.
That your public key and your address are the same thing. The address is derived from the public key and shortened, and on several chains the public key is not even revealed until you spend. Sharing an address is normal; the private key is the one that matters.
Common questions
What is the difference between a public key and an address?
Can somebody work out my private key from my public key?
Where this comes up on the site
The guides that actually use this word, rather than a list of everything we have written.
Where to go next
More foundations terms
Want this explained out loud?
Some of these land faster in conversation than in writing. Sessions are one to one and you can ask anything, including the things that feel too obvious to ask.