private key [English]

Syndetic Relationships

InterPARES Definition

No definition in earlier IP projects. ITrust definition not yet developed.

Other Definitions

  • Blockchain Technologies 2016 (†789 s.v. "Private Key"): A private key is a string of data that shows you have access to bitcoins in a specific wallet. Private keys can be thought of as a password; private keys must never be revealed to anyone but you, as they allow you to spend the bitcoins from your bitcoin wallet through a cryptographic signature.
  • Diffie & Landau 2007 (†848 p.397): In public-key cryptography, the key that is known only to the recipient and is used for decryption and signing.
  • Seibold et al. 2016 (†821 p.18): An encryption key uniquely linked ot the owner and known only to the parties exchanged in a transaction; it is secretly held in a digital wallet.

Citations

  • Chuen (ed) 20156 (†855 p.21): … Bitcoin … uses an asymmetrical algorithm that generates two separate but asymmetrically linked keys: a public key and a private key. The keys are asymmetrical in the sense that the public key is derived from the private key but it is computationally impossible to obtain a private key from a public key. … The private key, on the other hand, must be kept secret and safely. (†2386)