Lesson 1 / 7 · 9 min · take your time
A signature is proof you held a secret
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Board 01
A signature is proof you held a secret
A chain does not know your name. It knows a lock and a signature. The lock is a — or an address derived from one. The secret that can open it is a . You sign a message with the secret. Anyone can check the signature with the lock. That is the whole trick, said without a drumroll.
Next time you open this lesson
We’ll open this slide when you come back. This device remembers it.
Keys move the deck. N next, P previous. Ours. Not PowerPoint.
Swipe the deck. Hold Previous for slide one. A vertical swipe still scrolls the page.
A chain does not know your name. It knows a lock and a signature. The lock is a — or an address derived from one. The secret that can open it is a . You sign a message with the secret. Anyone can check the signature with the lock. That is the whole trick, said without a drumroll.
Bitcoin’s usual curve is secp256k1. Ethereum’s usual picture is the same family of elliptic-curve signatures, then later account code. Nominative: those design names stay with their authors. We will not sell you a “quantum-” replacement key. A new curve on a slide is still a slide.
Lose the secret, and the lock still sits on the notebook. Nobody can “reset” it. That is the cost of removing a help desk. Human: the first time you hear “self-,” count what you still have to trust — your hands, a device, a backup, the software that derives the next address. Then we get back to the lock.
This classroom will not generate a key for you. If a page here draws a and asks you to save it, it is not us. Close it. Look. Do not buy. Not a broker.
See it on the board: Bitcoin
Say it back below. Then the next lesson opens. If you leave the page, we will ask to save your spot.
Ask the Professor