Hello bitcointalkers! Public and private keys/open and closed source wallet?

[Adams0001]

Hello, Bitcointalkers.

I'm new here, and I came here to learn more about bitcoin and cryptocurrency. I'd heard a lot about digital currencies and decided to give them a shot. I had no idea where to begin until I was directed to this forum. I'm confident that after joining here, I'll learn more and gain more knowledge about bitcoin and cryptocurrency.

After browsing some websites online, I learned about public and private keys, which I can distinguish a little. What I don't understand is the difference between open source and closed source wallets. How do they work, and how can you tell if a wallet is open source or closed source?

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[hosseinimr93]

After browsing some websites online, I learned about public and private keys, which I can distinguish a little.

Private key is used for spending the coins. As the name suggests, a private key should be kept secret. Any who has access to your private key can steal your fund.
A public key can be shared publicly. Whenever you a make bitcoin tranaction, your reveal your public key.

What I don't understand is the difference between open source and closed source wallets. How do they work, and how can you tell if a wallet is open source or closed source?

If a wallet is open-source, it means that the source code is available to the public and anyone is able to check the code to see how the wallet is working.
If a wallet is close-source, there is no way to know how the keys are generated. You should avoid any close-source wallet.

[Stalker22]

What I don't understand is the difference between open source and closed source wallets. How do they work, and how can you tell if a wallet is open source or closed source?

Do you know the difference between open-source and closed-source software? The same thing applies to software wallets. You can tell if a wallet is open source or closed source by looking at the developer's website or app store page. If they offer the source code for download, it is an open source. If they do not, it is probably closed source.

However, just because a wallet is open source that does not guarantee that it is 100% safe. You should always do your research and choose a wallet based on its reputation, and expert reviews.

[bitmover]

Expanding this answer a little bit:

After browsing some websites online, I learned about public and private keys, which I can distinguish a little.

Private key is used for spending the coins. As the name suggests, a private key should be kept secret. Any who has access to your private key can steal your fund.
A public key can be shared publicly. Whenever you a make bitcoin tranaction, your reveal your public key.

The address is derived from your public key. Your bitcoin address is used to received coins, and this is all you need to receive coins. You don't need to share your public key.

What I don't understand is the difference between open source and closed source wallets. How do they work, and how can you tell if a wallet is open source or closed source?

If a wallet is open-source, it means that the source code is available to the public and anyone is able to check the code to see how the wallet is working.
If a wallet is close-source, there is no way to know how the keys are generated. You should avoid any close-source wallet.
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A good open source wallet for desktop and mobile is Electrum (https://electrum.org)

[drwhobox]

I'm new here, and I came here to learn more about bitcoin and cryptocurrency. I'd heard a lot about digital currencies and decided to give them a shot. I had no idea where to begin until I was directed to this forum. I'm confident that after joining here, I'll learn more and gain more knowledge about bitcoin and cryptocurrency.

You can give them a shot if you want to. If you will invest in bitcoin plan it as a long-term investment. Just don't start day trading as a newbie.
You can begin with bitcoin by buying from an exchange, you can do your own research on which exchange is good for you to buy bitcoin and then the most important part is don't keep them in exchange move your coins into a wallet where you hold the private keys. I can suggest you to check out electrum wallet if you don't want to spend money on hard wallets. Of course before taking any of these actions, do your own research.

[jeraldskie11]

Public key - is a key where you can "deposit/transfer" your funds. Sometimes it called public address.

Private key - simply stands for "password". So if we say password, it should be "kept".

Here's the example of Public Key (Bitcoin address) and Private Key:

Close Source - is high risk because you can't be able to see or check the code if there's something wrong.

Open Source - is low risk because you can see ot check the code if there's a bug or something, or safe to use with.

Since there's similar topic for this, please check this link for more details: Do beginners know what closed & open source wallets are?

[hosseinimr93]

Public key - is a key where you can "deposit/transfer" your funds. Sometimes it called public address.

A public key is different from address.
The public key is derived from the private key and the address is derived from the public key. What you share with others to receive bitcoin is your address, not your public key. 

[Pmalek]

Public key - is a key where you can "deposit/transfer" your funds. Sometimes it called public address.

Forget about public keys for standard bitcoin use. You don't need them. You need the address. The address is what you give to someone who needs to send you BTC, and you send your BTC to other people's addresses. Your public addresses will be reveled on the blockchain when you make an outgoing transaction from the address derived from that public key. But that's not something you need to worry about unless you get into the technicalities of Bitcoin.

The address is a shorter hashed form of the longer public key. But one doesn't substitute the other. My software won't allow me to send BTC to you if I enter your public key in the 'send to' field.

Close Source - is high risk because you can't be able to see or check the code if there's something wrong.
Open Source - is low risk because you can see ot check the code if there's a bug or something, or safe to use with.

Depends on how popular the software is. When we are talking about something like Electrum, it's a piece of software that has been verified numerous times by multiple parties. But if it's a brand-new, unpopular, and unused software, it doesn't matter much if it's open or closed-source.

Consider this:
You find a piece of software on the internet where someone "promises" it solves a particular problem. It's new, and there are no records of anyone every verifying it besides the owner and his fake friends. No security company has ever checked it. There is nothing about it on the internet. You have no idea how to verify the code yourself, and no one else will do it for you.

Do you think this software that no one has ever used or checked is safe because it's open-source?
There is a thread in the reputation board right now where a user created a fake seed checker software. You know what? He says it's open-source. You feel like using it to check your seeds?

[BlackBoss_]

You will have to create Private key, then Public Key and lastly a Public address.

Keys, Addresses is a good chapter from Mastering Bitcoin book to learn about the process to produce Private key, Public key and Public address.

You can not do the opposite like have a Public address and use it to derive its public key or private key.

Learn me a bitcoin website with its technical page is helpful for you as well.
Private key
Public key
Address

[jeraldskie11]

But if it's a brand-new, unpopular, and unused software, it doesn't matter much if it's open or closed-source.

That's not what I mean. What I'm saying is, how big is the risk of Close Source than Open Source. Look, if you are a good developer, are you choosing close source than open source if it's new? I think not at all.

Consider this:
Would you trust someone whose name, some aspects of their background, and characteristics you don't know? Or, would you trust someone whose past and personality you are familiar with? Naturally, if you were a manager or client, you would accept applicants with Resumes over those without.

Do you think this software that no one has ever used or checked is safe because it's open-source?

I didn't say that it's safe to use a brand-new software if it's an open source. Now what if the question is, it's safe to use brand-new software if it's close source? What's the difference?

In my own perspective and as what I have learned from here, "not your key is not your money". Because we're talking about currency, I think you should have to be more "clever" of your funds. "Don't ever trust someone who kept secret the most important thing that you really have to know."

[Pmalek]

That's not what I mean. What I'm saying is, how big is the risk of Close Source than Open Source. Look, if you are a good developer, are you choosing close source than open source if it's new? I think not at all.

There is a risk that there is something in the code that shouldn't be there and that's the reason why it's hidden. But then again, there doesn't have to be anything like that. There is no rule that I have to share what I wrote with the world. It's mine, and I might not want others to have it. The business world is a selfish one. People want their companies to flourish, not those around them. Open-source is based on different principles though, but not everyone want's to be a part of that. The open vs closed-source questions have greater importance in the crypto space, but in reality, many of the software we use on a daily basis are closed-source.

You are probably writing this on your closed-source Windows, an OS that is more popular than all the other combined. The most widely known office software is the closed-source Microsoft Office. The apps you use from Google are closed-source. If you work with PDFs, you most probably do so with Adobe Acrobat, another closed-source software. Your banking apps are closed source. Photoshop is closed-source. Your anti-virus software is most probably closed-source, the biggest ones are. Some VPN providers are closed-source, others are open-source.

The number of developers that program closed-source software and systems surely outnumber those that develop open-source alternatives. 

[Adams0001]

I appreciate your effort I have more knowledge about the private key and public key, but something I don't understand is that how can someone recover is private key if you didn't see it again please can someone explain it to me for more understanding

[hosseinimr93]

but something I don't understand is that how can someone recover is private key if you didn't see it again please can someone explain it to me for more understanding

There is no way to recover your private key if you lose it. If your lose your private key, your fund is lost forever.
Take note that your private key isn't like a password in centralized services that you can set a new one if you lose it.

[Z-tight]

I appreciate your effort I have more knowledge about the private key and public key, but something I don't understand is that how can someone recover is private key if you didn't see it again please can someone explain it to me for more understanding

If you lose your keys, it is lost for good; there isn't a way to recover it. But you do not have to write your private keys out on paper or try to memorize it, your private keys should remain in your wallet software, that is why you should use an HD wallet so all you have to back up is your recovery phrase which you can use at anytime to recover the wallet or keys.

I may point out that in a custodial wallet a third party controls your keys so you should never use them, but using a non custodial wallet does not mean you are safe, the device that has your wallet software and keys has to be clean, that is why it is best practice to use an offline device to store keys that have addresses with large amounts in them, and you can keep small amounts in hot wallets.

[Cantsay]

I appreciate your effort I have more knowledge about the private key and public key, but something I don't understand is that how can someone recover is private key if you didn't see it again please can someone explain it to me for more understanding

Once you forget or loss your private key and secret phrases then that's the end, you can't recover it. And please beware of people claiming that they have some tools that can help you recover your private key/ secret phrases they will only end up scamming you or infect your system with some malware which will later on steal your personal information.

[Sarah Azhari]

how can you tell if a wallet is open source or closed source?

many people say it's better to keep your bitcoin on an open source wallet where you can look that and check the detail code and resources, but until now, i don't know how to look that and how the code work, which means if you still not undertstand how the code of program a open source wallet running, is useless.

I appreciate your effort I have more knowledge about the private key and public key, but something I don't understand is that how can someone recover is private key if you didn't see it again please can someone explain it to me for more understanding

I never heard someone success recover a private key

[witcher_sense]

I appreciate your effort I have more knowledge about the private key and public key, but something I don't understand is that how can someone recover is private key if you didn't see it again please can someone explain it to me for more understanding

More often than not, your wallet is what takes care of private key generation; specifically, it uses any available source of entropy (the disorder of a system) and converts these random bits of information into something we call a bitcoin private key. What you need to realize is that if the randomness that your wallet used to create a key was really "random" and unpredictable, then it becomes impossible to reproduce this key even by using the same device, the same wallet, and the same source of randomness. The only way to restore a wallet in case of accidental loss or unintentional removal is to take the private key you previously obtained and export it to software. You can't "reset" your private key by clicking the "Forgot Private Key?" button because this whole system relies on cryptographically secure random data and people making backups of this data. When data is lost, it is lost for good.

[Doan9269]

What I don't understand is the difference between open source and closed source wallets. How do they work, and how can you tell if a wallet is open source or closed source?

Under decentralized wallets we have either an open source or close source wallet, but i still don't understand why some decentralized exchanges will make their own wallet with the features of being a close source, this means you have no access to see their source code that can be use in  tracking any information needed about the open since it is not made available for public, but don't take an open source wallet for a centralized wallet as a newbie, open source means they are open and make everything going on through thier wallet open to the public, which is being transparent enough to me, i see no reason for hiding their source code if nothing phishy though.