What Are Private Keys and How Can You Keep It Safe
Private keys play an important role in your crypto journey. Your private key enables you to manage and control your blockchain wallet and, at the same time, let people ascertain that you own it.
To identify ownership, you also have to be aware of your public key—together, the two recognise you as the owner of the wallet that you use for all your transactions.
What is the difference between the two? We can correlate it with your bank’s account number and PIN. Your private key is the PIN that only you should know and keep secret, while your public key is the account number that you can share with other people.
In cryptocurrency, a private key authenticates asset ownership and encrypts a wallet. From the Private Key is created a Public Key. This public key can be shared by anyone wanting to send you crypto.
When setting up a crypto wallet, like Hippo Wallet, a user is presented with a 24-word recovery phrase. These 24 words are used to generate the user's Private Key. Therefore, the user must not share those 24 words and his private key with anyone. This allows users to restore their wallets if they ever lose access to them.
If a user loses his device, he can restore his wallet and retrieve his funds using this recovery phrase.
However, depending on whether the wallet you use is custodial or non-custodial, your private keys are controlled by the actual owner of the fund.
In Hippo Wallet’s case, since it is non-custodial, you have sole control over your funds and access to your private key, public key, and passcode.
How Can You Keep Your Private Key Safe?
It is important to note the following:
- Do not share your recovery phrase with anyone.
- Do not post your recovery phrase anywhere online.
- Leverage secure recovery backup methods.
Our team is working on enhancing our crypto wallet app and giving it more features that will make our users trust us more. Stay tuned for our updates. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Telegram.
