Public Key Cryptography
Learn to grasp the concept of public key cryptography, how key pairs are generated, and their essential function in encrypting and decrypting data for secure blockchain communication.
We'll cover the following...
What is public key cryptography?
Public key cryptography is a cryptographic system used for the encryption/decryption of data. It is not one way like a hash function, meaning that the data, once encrypted, can be decrypted if you have the required key.
You start by generating a special, related pair of keys. These keys can be generated in a pair only. They are output from single execution of a key generation algorithm.
Color coding in this course:
- Golden key: private key
- Silver key : public key
Key usage
Any key can lock or encrypt the data. To unlock or decrypt we need the other key. The only way to decrypt and make the data readable is by having the corresponding key.
In the next lesson, we will show how this cryptographic technique is used to ensure communication security.
Key generation playground
Test yourself
If a person possesses a private key, the person may generate the corresponding public key using a key-pair generator.
True
False
In the next lesson, we will show how this cryptographic technique is used to ensure communication security.