wow's Studio.

Cryptocurrency by Princeton[1.4]

Word count: 102Reading time: 1 min
2021/03/31 Share

Lecture 1.3: Public Keys as Identities

Useful trick: public key == an identity

How to make a new identity?

Create a new, random key-pair (sk, pk);

pk is the public name you can use (usually better to use Hash(pk));

sk lets you “speak for” the identity.

If pk looks random, nobody needs to know who you are.


Decentralized identity management

Anybody can make a new identity at any time, make as many as you want.

These identities are called “addresses” in Bitcoin.


Privacy

Addresses not directly connected to real-world identity.

But there are privacy problems to be solved in cryptocurrency like Bitcoin.

CATALOG
  1. Useful trick: public key == an identity
  2. Decentralized identity management
  3. Privacy