[address,password,private key,seed phrase,keystore] still confusing about these things?Maybe these could help you.

in #cryptocurrency6 years ago

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Image you have just bought some ethers in a exchange, and right now you may want to create a wallet to store it.
There is a lot of etherum wallets you can choose.Take metamask as an example, after you install the metamask plugin in you browser, you can follow the step and create your own wallet.
But maybe you will be confused by some unfamiliar "words" when you first create a wallet, yeah, you get it, they are the words in the title which you will meet as you create a wallet.
Now let’s figure it out.

Address


Well,this is probably the easiest thing to understand.The address is similar to bank card account or website username.With the address, you can transfer your cryptocurrency.And you can also check the balance and transaction history.This always doesn’t make any confusion.So let’s move on.

Password


When you are creating a wallet, a password is required.It is set by yourself, and always required more than eight characters.The password is just like your bank card password or your website password.But there is a little difference, in a website, if you forget your password,you can find it by using email or phone number.While in the world of blockchain, if you forget your password and you didn’t backup any other things like private key or seed phrase, you will lost the money in your wallet forever.The password is needed when you transfer some cryptocurrency to someone.And there is another application.We will talk about it later.You can just consider it as your bank card password or your website password.

Private Key


Well,here is something we may not so familiar.No matter we use a bank card or sign up an account in a website, we always get two things, a username and a password.But after you create a wallet, you can see there is button which used to export private key.You may heard about how important it is , but you may confusing about what it is actually.Don’t think too much, you can think it just a combination of address and password , as long as you have the private key, you have the control of the wallet.On the other hand, if someone have your wallet private key, he can just click the import button in the wallet and enter the private key , he can access you account and stole your money.There is no password required, all he need to do is to enter the private key and doing so he can reset a password and transfer your money to another place.So Keep your private key carefully, it is really important.

Seed Phrase


If you are using metamask or other etherum wallets, you may see a button which display "Restore from seed phrase".And you can also get your wallet seed phrase by click something like "Export seed phrase". Seed Phrase is a set of words, it actually is another form of private key, use understandable words instead of private key which looks like a sets of unordered characters. If someone get your wallet seed phrase, he can do the same thing to your account like he get your private key,So Keep your seed phrase carefully too, don’t let anyone know except yourself.

KeyStore


In addition to private key or seed phrase, you have another way to import you old wallet account in a new wallet.That’s KeyStore,it is always a json file, you can export it to your computer after you create a wallet.If you don’t know what is a json file, it doesn’t matter, all you need to know is KeyStore is the result that use your password encrypt your private key.Yeah,remember we have just talk about that password have another application in the above?Here it is. So when you want to use keystore to import an account, you will also need your password, in this way , the keystore is actually decrypt to private key ,so you can import you wallet account.

Conclusion


After read this article, maybe you already have a clear understanding of these "words" that you will meet when you create a wallet.I hope this article will help you guys.If you find there is some mistakes in my article, you can leave a comment to let me know.I’ll fix it if i see.Or if you have other question about blockchain and cryptocurrency, you can ask in the comment.I’ll try my best to answer the question.And If you like my post,please upvote and follow me.Thanks for reading.

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