Seed phrase, private key, public address: Decoding the elements of a crypto wallet

Compared to an everyday physical wallet, using a crypto wallet can be a bit confusing, especially for newbies. One of the reasons for this could be the many layers of security these storage solutions employ. The long and complex login credentials — namely the seed phrase, the private key and the public address — can be tedious to handle.

Each of these elements is a randomly generated string of words, letters or numbers, making them difficult to remember. To make matters worse, forgetting any of these login credentials could also lead to significant financial losses. Keeping this in mind, we will quickly go through the crucial elements of a crypto wallet and explain their role in keeping your digital assets safe and secure.

Each crypto wallet has two sets of keys — one private key and one public key. The private key works as a password, and the public key works as a username. You use a private key when you want to log into your wallet, and you can give your public key to anyone who intends to send you crypto. It is important to note that you can extract a public key if you know a private key but not the other way around. So, it is always advisable to be very careful with your private key.