Understanding Crypto Wallets

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One of the most used web3 applications is Wallets. A crypto wallet is the gateway for interacting with web3 apps. Wallet controls access to the user’s money, tracks balance, manages keys and addresses, creates and signs transactions. A common misconception is that wallets store crypto coins. Wallets do not store the coins, but the blockchain does or rather the coins are recorded on a blockchain. Wallets contain only the user’s keys. But how can you control your coins on the blockchain network using a wallet? And what are keys?

Digital Signatures

Think of a digital signature as an alphanumeric string of random length. The key idea here is that digital signatures can be verified by anybody using what we call a public key. But, they can be created only by the one who has access to what we call a private or secret key. Public and private keys are created in pairs using mathematical algorithms. For example, you can create a public-private key pair, store the private key safely by memorizing it or writing it on a piece of paper and keeping it in a safe and private place and publish the public key so anybody can use it to verify signatures created by you. Now, you can use your private key to create signatures and…