Read THIS if you think Private Keys = Seed Phrase (2024)

“Not your keys, not your coins.” I’m sure you’ve heard this well-known saying, especially during this uncertain time in the crypto space, with big exchanges going bankrupt one after another. It’s exciting to see the awareness of self-custody has been rising significantly lately. Check my previous article on why you should consider getting a cold wallet.

However, I noticed something interesting. While I see the above saying everywhere, it seems a lot of people mistook ‘keys/ private keys’ for ‘seed phrases/ recovery phrases.’ If you are one of them, don’t worry! Let’s demystify this common misconception right now!

First thing first, do you know there are 2 types of keys in our crypto wallet?

Public keys (Wallet Address):
It serves the same purpose as your bank account number, essentially, it’s the receiving address of your wallet. Anyone can send crypto by using this public key to your wallet (hence it’s called public) without putting the security of your wallet at risk.

Public keys usually look something like this:

1BQFYQmcH16A1bJYnL6fWtgoyoNnz2ZnZp

Private keys:
It is the password to access your bank account. If anyone holds the private key of a crypto wallet, it means he/she has total control of that crypto wallet. Private keys serve the purpose of identifying the ownership of your wallet, so if you lose the private key, you lose access to your wallet. And if your private key is compromised or got stolen, then someone has control over the assets in your wallet; he/she can transfer them to another wallet as they please.

The private keys have a form of hexadecimal (hex) number, combined with long strings of numbers and characters, which is essentially a specific way of presenting very large numbers. These hex numbers can be recognized by computers easily while still manageable by humans.

Private keys usually look something like this:

L5JkWUqEyWEwUE6t4kF2EcPuNbEKW7RhSwfkARUqGBdD3LuoSvRk