Bitcoin Forum
November 03, 2026, 08:11:25 PM *
News: Latest Bitcoin Core release: 32.1 [Torrent]
 
   Home   Help Search Login Register More  
Pages: « 1 [2]  All
  Print  
Author Topic: Public and private keys, explained with a mailbox (not just "it's like a passwor  (Read 472 times)
odolvlobo
Legendary
*
Offline

Activity: 5138
Merit: 3848



View Profile
September 09, 2026, 04:52:40 AM
Last edit: September 10, 2026, 04:33:23 AM by odolvlobo
 #21

Your explanation is simple and straightforward and is good enough for most people. However, it is not completely accurate.

The reality is that:
1. the contents can only be retrieved from the back of the mailbox (which is conveniently labeled with the private key), and
2. all mailboxes are completely open in the back and anyone can chose any mailbox, reach into the back, and remove its contents.

The security of this system comes from three facts:

1. There is no way to associate the back of a mailbox with its front (and vice versa). sorry -- brain fart.
2. It takes time and effort to reach into a mailbox.
3. Practically all of the mailboxes are empty. It would take centuries of reaching into mailboxes to find a single one that contains something.

Join an anti-signature campaign: Click ignore on the members of signature campaigns.
PGP Fingerprint: 6B6BC26599EC24EF7E29A405EAF050539D0B2925 Signing address: 13GAVJo8YaAuenj6keiEykwxWUZ7jMoSLt
tbct_mt2
Legendary
*
Offline

Activity: 3150
Merit: 1090



View Profile
September 09, 2026, 07:57:15 AM
 #22

Your explanation is simple and straightforward and is good enough for most people. However, it is not completely accurate.

The security of this system comes from three facts:

1. There is no way to associate the back of a mailbox with its front (and vice versa).
2. It takes time and effort to reach into a mailbox.
3. Practically all of the mailboxes are empty. It would take centuries of reaching into mailboxes to find a single one that contains something.
Private keys used to create public keys.
Public keys used to generate Bitcoin addresses.

Two processes are one-way, the first one from Elliptic curve multiplication (ECC) on the secp256k1 curve, the second one from hashing SHA256, both are one way. If these processes are not one-way, and from a Bitcoin address, it's possible to find Bitcoin private keys easily, then spend coins of the others, Bitcoin blockchain is useless, and bitcoin has no value.

https://bitcoinsecurity.org/learn/private-key/
https://bitcoinsecurity.org/learn/public-key/
https://bitcoinsecurity.org/learn/address/

 
  jet LA  
█████
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
█████
██████████
██
☘︎
██
██████████
███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
 
 A crypto casino LOL 
 
███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
██████████
██
⚽︎
██
██████████
█████
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
█████
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
 
   Play Now   
knowngunman
Hero Member
*****
Offline

Activity: 1512
Merit: 593



View Profile WWW
September 09, 2026, 08:11:10 AM
 #23

There are countless users who have completely wrong ideas that if you lose the private key that implies you just won't be able to use your address anymore. They think there will always be a way to recover the key, just like you recover a password... That's false, and it will never be possible.
I am sorry but I am feeling lost when reading this post because it is confusing and kind of misleading me to a thought like if I lost my Bitcoin private key, I still can access my bitcoin, and it means like I am still safe.

Thought I was the one who felt lost reading that part. I read it multiple times but couldn't grab the exact message because it's contradicting. Losing your private keys won't make your address invalid. The address can still receive coins and add up to your balance but there is no point sending coins to address you can not longer access the private keys unless you want to lose the coin forever.

You can always use your address to receive funds, but you cannot spend the funds sent to that address without the private key that unlocks the funds sent to the address

This is true but only a mad person would use that address to receive funds. If you don't have the private keys to access your wallet, it's wrong to say you're using it to receive funds, you're using it to burn funds instead.  Cheesy

 
█▄
R


▀▀▀▀▀▀▀██████▄▄
████████████████
▀▀▀▀█████▀▀▀█████
████████▌███▐████
▄▄▄▄█████▄▄▄█████
████████████████
▄▄▄▄▄▄▄██████▀▀
LLBIT▀█ 
  THE #1 SOLANA CASINO  
████████████▄
▀▀██████▀▀███
██▄▄▀▀▄▄█████
█████████████
█████████████
███▀█████████
▀▄▄██████████
█████████████
█████████████
█████████████
█████████████
█████████████
████████████▀
████████████▄
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀██████
█████████████
▄████████████
██▄██████████
████▄████████
█████████████
█░▀▀█████████
▀▀███████████
█████▄███████
████▀▄▀██████
▄▄▄▄▄▄▄██████
████████████▀
........5,000+........
GAMES
 
......INSTANT......
WITHDRAWALS
..........HUGE..........
REWARDS
 
............VIP............
PROGRAM
 .
   PLAY NOW    
EluguHcman
Hero Member
*****
Offline

Activity: 1232
Merit: 549



View Profile WWW
September 10, 2026, 08:46:39 PM
 #24

That total incapacity for recovery only exists if there is personal custody. If you lose your password to an account at an exchange house like Binance or Coinbase, it's a completely different scenario, because those exchange houses have your private key for you, that's what custody means. So, you can recover your account using traditional account recovery methods.
So, in short, you are insinuating that people should use custodial means to hold their coins? Also this is entirely different from the title of your topic which is about private key and public key explained, and not about in difference to exchanges.

Exchanges have their own downsides which can not make me use exchanges to hold coins.
Some Bitcoin users had also lost their interests of self custody with their funds which is one of the reasons Satoshi had to invent Bitcoin just to create an atmospheric conditions that individual users would have the privilege to control their funds through which, users are in charge of their seed phrase without haven to trust it in a third parties custody.

Instead, how to spend the money easily is what they finds more interesting as the exchange is Centralized. Until such users falls victim, they won't know the risks in giving your exchange the right to hold your recovery keys.
Of course that is pure loosing of self right because the exchange will also have to decide your means in the space.

Exchange is never advice able to be used in holding your coin for long because it can be risk to lost right and accessibility of your privacy and funds.

 
█▄
R


▀▀▀▀▀▀▀██████▄▄
████████████████
▀▀▀▀█████▀▀▀█████
████████▌███▐████
▄▄▄▄█████▄▄▄█████
████████████████
▄▄▄▄▄▄▄██████▀▀
LLBIT▀█ 
  THE #1 SOLANA CASINO  
████████████▄
▀▀██████▀▀███
██▄▄▀▀▄▄█████
█████████████
█████████████
███▀█████████
▀▄▄██████████
█████████████
█████████████
█████████████
█████████████
█████████████
████████████▀
████████████▄
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀██████
█████████████
▄████████████
██▄██████████
████▄████████
█████████████
█░▀▀█████████
▀▀███████████
█████▄███████
████▀▄▀██████
▄▄▄▄▄▄▄██████
████████████▀
........5,000+........
GAMES
 
......INSTANT......
WITHDRAWALS
..........HUGE..........
REWARDS
 
............VIP............
PROGRAM
 .
   PLAY NOW    
sopiandi
Full Member
***
Offline

Activity: 330
Merit: 102


Bitcoin enthusiast since 2016. Self-custody first.


View Profile
November 02, 2026, 11:05:25 AM
Last edit: Today at 04:51:40 PM by sopiandi
 #25

I really like this analogy, and based on my own personal experience, I’d like to add one distinction that is often overlooked by many beginners like myself.
Some time ago, I managed to regain access to this forum solely because the password was saved on my wife’s device—my own device had completely stopped working.

There is no reset process for a private key or recovery phrase. For instance, I still have some keystore files from MyEtherWallet dating back to 2016, but I have never been able to recall the exact password I used for them.
There is no support contact that can recover these, nor is there a "forgot password" feature; it is quite possible that I will never be able to access them again.

So, in my view, if you lose the only key to an account—like an email account—that account is gone forever, and there is no one who can create a copy of it for you.

₿ Bitcoin since 2016 — self-custody, wallet security, and practical Bitcoin use.
Charles-Tim
Legendary
*
Offline

Activity: 2450
Merit: 6608


Leading Crypto Sports Betting & Casino Platform


View Profile
November 02, 2026, 11:57:14 AM
 #26

I like this analogy, and I want to add one difference that many beginners miss, from my own experience. A normal password can be recovered. Some weeks ago I got my old 2016 forum account back only because the password was saved in my password manager — and even if it was not saved, the forum has a reset process.

A private key or seed phrase has no reset process. I still have some old Ethereum keystore files from 2017-2018 and I forgot the password for them. There is no support desk to call, no "forgot password" link, and maybe I will never open them again. So for me the mailbox analogy is good, but with one warning: if you lose the only key to that mailbox, the mailbox is gone forever, and nobody in the world can make you a copy.
If it is wallet file encryption, it is still password and not private key or seed phrase.

Your password for a wallet can not be recovered if you forget it and if it is difficult to impossible to brute force. If you use it for your wallet encryption, the wallet will not be recovered.

What is discussed here is not about centralized platforms.

██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
████████████
▀▀███████▀████████████████████████████████████████
██████████
▀██▄▄████▄██▐████▀▀███████████▀▀████████████████████
█████████
▌██▐██████▌██████▌█▐█████████████▐███████████████████
█████████
▌█████████▄▄▄██████▀▀▀▀███████▌█████▀████████████████
██████████
▄███▀███████▀▀██████▄██████████▐█▀█▄███▀▀███████████
████████████
▄▄███▀▀██▄▄▄▄██▐███▀██▄█▐█▌██▀█▄██▀██▄▄███████████
████████████████
▄▄███▀██▌███████▄█▌███████▐██▌███▀█▄██████████
██████████
▀███▄███████████▐██▌█▐████████▐██▐████▄██▀██████████
█████████
▌██▄███████████▄████▄████▄██▄██████▀▄█████▄▀█████████
█████████
▌██▀███▀▀███▄█████████████████████▄██▀▀▀▀▀█▄█████████
██████████
▄██████▄▄██████████████████████████▄▄▄▄▄▄███████████
██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██

 🎰  🎲 ..Play Smarter.. 🏀  ⚽ ..Play Now..
tbct_mt2
Legendary
*
Offline

Activity: 3150
Merit: 1090



View Profile
November 02, 2026, 03:11:30 PM
 #27

If it is wallet file encryption, it is still password and not private key or seed phrase.
A password only encrypt the wallet file and access to it but if people (the wallet owners or hackers) have wallet seed phrase backup to use, they can import the wallet seed phrase and recover that wallet without a password. After recovering that wallet, they can set up a new wallet password, and they can repeat it with other wallet files recovered from a same wallet seed phrase.

The wallet is only one but with different wallet files, different passwords can be used.

Losing a wallet password is not too terrible, if you have wallet seed phrase backup.
Losing a wallet seed phrase is most terrible, it means you completely lose a wallet.

 
  jet LA  
█████
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
█████
██████████
██
☘︎
██
██████████
███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
 
 A crypto casino LOL 
 
███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
██████████
██
⚽︎
██
██████████
█████
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
█████
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
 
   Play Now   
Charles-Tim
Legendary
*
Offline

Activity: 2450
Merit: 6608


Leading Crypto Sports Betting & Casino Platform


View Profile
November 02, 2026, 03:33:39 PM
 #28

A password only encrypt the wallet file and access to it but if people (the wallet owners or hackers) have wallet seed phrase backup to use, they can import the wallet seed phrase and recover that wallet without a password. After recovering that wallet, they can set up a new wallet password, and they can repeat it with other wallet files recovered from a same wallet seed phrase.
I know this, but that is not what my discussion was about. My discussion was about the importance of password in wallet file encryption.

Losing a wallet password is not too terrible, if you have wallet seed phrase backup.
Losing a wallet seed phrase is most terrible, it means you completely lose a wallet.
You make all examples in a way the seed phrase is the most necessary, but what about people that have wallet file backup instead of seed phrase?

Just like losing a wallet file backup is most terrible if you did not backup the seed phrase or private key? It also means the the coins are completely lost.

██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
████████████
▀▀███████▀████████████████████████████████████████
██████████
▀██▄▄████▄██▐████▀▀███████████▀▀████████████████████
█████████
▌██▐██████▌██████▌█▐█████████████▐███████████████████
█████████
▌█████████▄▄▄██████▀▀▀▀███████▌█████▀████████████████
██████████
▄███▀███████▀▀██████▄██████████▐█▀█▄███▀▀███████████
████████████
▄▄███▀▀██▄▄▄▄██▐███▀██▄█▐█▌██▀█▄██▀██▄▄███████████
████████████████
▄▄███▀██▌███████▄█▌███████▐██▌███▀█▄██████████
██████████
▀███▄███████████▐██▌█▐████████▐██▐████▄██▀██████████
█████████
▌██▄███████████▄████▄████▄██▄██████▀▄█████▄▀█████████
█████████
▌██▀███▀▀███▄█████████████████████▄██▀▀▀▀▀█▄█████████
██████████
▄██████▄▄██████████████████████████▄▄▄▄▄▄███████████
██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██
██

 🎰  🎲 ..Play Smarter.. 🏀  ⚽ ..Play Now..
Sammysmart001
Full Member
***
Online Online

Activity: 308
Merit: 140


JAH OVER ALL🙇🙏


View Profile WWW
November 02, 2026, 04:06:35 PM
 #29

Losing a wallet password is not too terrible, if you have wallet seed phrase backup.
Losing a wallet seed phrase is most terrible, it means you completely lose a wallet.
You make all examples in a way the seed phrase is the most necessary, but what about people that have wallet file backup instead of seed phrase?

Just like losing a wallet file backup is most terrible if you did not backup the seed phrase or private key? It also means the the coins are completely lost.

Wallet file is only as good as it password that is protecting it. You don’t have a backup, if you just back up an encrypted wallet file without it password or seed phrase. All you just have is a locked file you can never open.

This are reason why seed phrase backups on metal or paper are actually the gold standard. Well  properly stored seed phrase will give you the guarantees to alway recover your funds. But a digital file can get corrupted or forgotten.

Pages: « 1 [2]  All
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.19 | SMF © 2006-2009, Simple Machines Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!