A wallet address is a public, shareable identifier on a blockchain network to which assets can be sent and from which ownership is asserted. It is typically derived deterministically from a public key by hashing and encoding, allowing anyone to send funds to it while only the holder of the corresponding private key can authorise outgoing transactions. Addresses are network-specific in format and serve as the destination in transactions and the anchor for on-chain balance accounting.
Overview
- A wallet address is the public face of a key pair. The private key is the secret that authorises spending; the public key is derived from it; and the address is a compact, error-checked encoding derived from the public key, suitable for sharing in QR codes or copy-paste. Revealing an address exposes no ability to spend.
- Address formats differ by network: Bitcoin uses Base58Check and Bech32 (SegWit) encodings, while Ethereum uses a 20-byte hex string with an EIP-55 mixed-case checksum. Both bake in checksums so that mistyped addresses are rejected rather than silently losing funds.
Key aspects
- Derivation: hash a public key (e.g. RIPEMD-160 of SHA-256, or Keccak-256) then apply a checksum and encoding scheme.
- One-way relationship: an address cannot reveal its public or private key, and many addresses can be generated from one seed via HD derivation.
- Reuse and privacy: reusing an address links transactions; hierarchical deterministic wallets generate fresh addresses to improve privacy.
Applications
- Receiving payments, payroll, and donations on public blockchains.
- Identifying accounts and contracts in block explorers and analytics.
- Whitelisting destinations in custody, exchange, and treasury workflows.