Private Key
A private key is a secret number used to sign a transfer. Whoever knows the key controls the coins, whatever passwords and apps stand in the way.
What a private key is
The public key is derived mathematically from the private key, and the address your payouts arrive at is derived from the public key. The reverse path does not exist: an address cannot give the key back. That is why you can hand the address to a pool or to anyone else, while the key goes to nobody.
An app password and a private key are different things. The password guards access to a program on your device. The key gives power over coins on the network. Changing the password does not change the key, and a leaked key makes the password meaningless.
In most wallets the key shows up as a recovery phrase of words rather than as a number. It is the same secret in readable form: the phrase restores the key in full. Hence the rule we repeat to every buyer: the phrase lives on paper, never in a chat, a phone gallery or a cloud.
Recovery through support does not exist for your own wallet and cannot exist, because nobody but you holds the key. That is the price of independence, and you have to come to terms with it before the first payout lands on the address.
Quick reference table
| What it is | the secret that signs a transfer |
| What comes from it | the public key, then the address |
| The reverse path | impossible, since an address does not reveal the key |
| Human readable form | a recovery phrase of words |
| Recovery | by the phrase only, with no support desk |
How to store it so you neither lose it nor give it away
Write the phrase down by hand and keep it where you keep your documents. Two copies in two places save you from a fire and from loss, and a photo on your phone saves you from nothing.
Never type the phrase into a website and never send it into a chat, even when the request comes in the name of pool or shop support. Nobody needs it, not us, not the pool, not the exchange: an address is enough for payouts.
If the sum matters to you, get a hardware wallet: the key never leaves the device and signing happens inside. For small working amounts an ordinary app is enough, though let that be a decision you made rather than an accident.
An example from the bench
A common story among newcomers: the wallet was created on a phone, the phrase was photographed and left in a cloud, and then the phone was lost along with cloud access. The coins are gone and there is nobody to get them back from. Second most common: the phrase gets typed into a site that looks like the wallet, and the money leaves the same evening.
Related terms
Where to go next on the site
Coins
Hardware
- ASIC Miner knowledge base
Questions and answers
How is a private key different from a password
A password protects an app on a device. A key lets you move coins on the network. A password can be changed. A key cannot.
Should you give the key to your pool
No. The pool needs only an address for payouts. Any request to send a key or a recovery phrase is an attempt to rob you.
What if the phrase is lost
If you still have access to the wallet, move the coins to a new wallet with a new phrase right away. If access is gone, there is nothing left to restore from.
Is a hardware wallet safer than an app
The key inside it never leaves the device, and signing happens inside. For amounts you would hate to lose, that is money well spent.
How the terms connect
Every link in the chain is clickable. Orange marks where you are now.
Looking for an ASIC miner
The catalog holds 212 models. You can compare them by hashrate and by joules per terahash, then plug your own rate into the calculator and see what stays in your pocket.
Page written and checked by Denys Klimchuk. Updated .