Wallet addresses, public keys and private keys
A wallet address is a public identifier used in a particular blockchain system. A private key authorizes actions; never enter one into an address lookup or checker.
Worked example
| Item | May be shared? | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Receive address | Public, with privacy consequences | Identifies a destination/account |
| Public key | Public cryptographic material | Used in signature systems; encoding varies |
| Private key or recovery phrase | Keep secret | Can confer control; not required for lookup |
Ethereum is a derived address
For an ordinary Ethereum account, the address is derived from the public key using Keccak-256 and its last 20 bytes. It is shorter than the full public key. Wallets can manage many accounts, so the application name is not itself an address.
Solana uses different terminology
Ordinary Solana keypair account addresses are public keys, but program-derived addresses also exist and are off the Ed25519 curve. Do not generalize “every address has a private key” across account systems.
Common pitfalls
- A recovery phrase is not a public address.
- Nobody needs a secret to inspect a public NFT contract. This site has no secret-input fields.
Related references
Primary sources
Examples explain identifiers. They are not investment recommendations.