Wallet Address

[toggle57]

I've read many many descriptions of what a wallet address is and I think I am getting to understand it.

A wallet address is NOT a thing that identifies or points to a wallet.

Rather a wallet address refers to an address (public/private key pair) within a wallet but I think more subtly... a wallet creates a signature/hash FROM a public/private key pair that is contained within the wallet. This signature is used to authenticate a transaction without actually exposing the key pair.

A wallet therefore is a container for one or more private/public key pairs and the algorithms required to generate signatures from them.

Did I get that right?

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

Your wallet will be identified and marked if you made some transactions from it. It is more easily to mark it if you reuse your addresses in the same wallet or you combine them (from multiple UTXOs) and make one sendout.

The explorer can identify wallet and addresses are used in one wallet.
https://www.walletexplorer.com/

I heard some people said that if you reuse your address (public address), the more you reuse a public address, the more risk of brute-force attack (by connection of private key and public address). Hackers need very power computers to be succeeded but they said there are risks.

The more time you use private key to sign your transaction, the more risk of brute-force.

[nc50lc]

A wallet therefore is a container for one or more private/public key pairs and the algorithms required to generate signatures from them.

Did I get that right?

Yes along with their other features.

A wallet address is NOT a thing that identifies or points to a wallet.

This depends on what's being explained by the writer.
If talking about bitcoin addresses and wallets, then it points to a wallet since it's generally a "human-readable encoding" of the public key hash, and the public key is contained in your wallet.
If it's about the blockchain not your wallet, then there're no addresses involved but only the scripts they represent.

[pooya87]

A wallet address is NOT a thing that identifies or points to a wallet.

that is correct. without having the unencrypted wallet file itself or the master key of HD wallets, there is no way of linking different addresses together claiming they belong to the same wallet.

a wallet creates a signature/hash FROM a public/private key pair that is contained within the wallet. This signature is used to authenticate a transaction without actually exposing the key pair.

a wallet creates the signature from the private key (not the pair) and in a transaction you publish the signature + the public key, and both of these are used to "unlock" the transaction output that is being spent, or in simple terms spend bitcoin.

A wallet therefore is a container for one or more private/public key pairs and the algorithms required to generate signatures from them.

Did I get that right?

yes this last one is the best explanation of what a wallet is. although wallet could simply refer to the file or the medium used to store the key(s) like paper wallet or wallet.dat file that only contain the key(s).

[toggle57]

Thanks so much guys,

There are so many poorly written articles out there that try to explain this stuff - that leave out subtle points and I have had to read dozens of them to get to this point of understanding.

One of the most common sloppy turns of phrase are "saving your bitcoins to your wallet".

"Value" lives on the block chain and one uses the keys and algorithms in a wallet, to create signatures to transact with it. Except that a paper wallet, and a brain wallet have no algorithms to create signatures - so are they wallets? hmmm

I point this out to demonstrate a noobs perspective on the way the jargon is used.

My parents owned a restaurant in 1986 and I remember telling them how I was going to create a menu on the computer... you can imagine how confused they were.

Thanks again... great community.

[BlackHatCoiner]

Out there there are truly many articles that don't make that much sense if you gather all the information. This happens basically because of the over enthusiasm and because most article sites at the moment live for Black Hat purposes only. (=only for money)

If you want to learn more about bitcoin there are some worthy places like learnmeabitcoin.com that will clear up some things in your mind.

Also, check this place you're posting right now, @xtraelv's signature could not describe it better.

We are surrounded by legends on this forum. Phenomenal successes and catastrophic failures. Then there are the scams. This forum is a digital museum. 

[xenon131]

I've read many many descriptions of what a wallet address is and I think I am getting to understand it.

A wallet address is NOT a thing that identifies or points to a wallet.

Rather a wallet address refers to an address (public/private key pair) within a wallet but I think more subtly... a wallet creates a signature/hash FROM a public/private key pair that is contained within the wallet. This signature is used to authenticate a transaction without actually exposing the key pair.

A wallet therefore is a container for one or more private/public key pairs and the algorithms required to generate signatures from them.

Did I get that right?

Take it simple, you may think of  address as of wallet's "pointer" for client to seek for relevant UTXOs in blockchain. Thinking of a wallet as of a box that  keeps private/public key pairs related to specific addresses ("pointers") is a nice  abstraction which simplifies matter.

[o_e_l_e_o]

"Value" lives on the block chain and one uses the keys and algorithms in a wallet, to create signatures to transact with it.

There is a short but good blog post here which explain this concept well:
https://www.ledger.com/academy/crypto/where-are-my-coins

Except that a paper wallet, and a brain wallet have no algorithms to create signatures - so are they wallets? hmmm

Paper wallets and brain wallets are impossible to spend from directly (unless you fancy calculating some signatures by hand). In both cases, you need to import the wallet in to a piece of software which will let you interact with your private keys in a meaningful way. I would say that at its most basic, a wallet is simply a collection of one or more private keys, with or without the software necessary to actually use those keys.