Casascius coins have 8 digits of the address on top of the hologram with the rest underneath.
If I go to Casascius website, I can find the rest of the address by using those first 8 digits,
which I assume anyone can do,
some ebay listings show what appears to be the full address so customers can verify via blockchain.info
seems to defeat the purpose of hiding it under the hologram,
What am I missing?
![Huh](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/huh.gif)
?
please help
Under the hologram is private key
What you can see (and everybody) is just First bits of Bitcoin address
Actually, you can easily see the WHOLE address, not just the "first bits". (by using the first bits and searching at casascius.com)
but THANKS MUCH!! I always assumed "code - key - address" were all the same things!!
but according to
https://blockchain.info/wallet/bitcoin-faqWhat is a private key?
A private key is a secret code which allows the user to prove his ownership of his Bitcoins. Every Bitcoin address has a matching private key, which is saved in the wallet file of the person who owns the balance. The private key is mathematically related to the Bitcoin address, and is designed so that the Bitcoin address can be calculated from the private key, but importantly, the same cannot be done in reverse.