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Cryptography for Cardano Wallet Users
Asymmetric cryptography and hashing functions are complex topics for ordinary users. However, anyone who wants to use a cryptocurrency wallet safely should know the basics. We will not discuss how exactly and why cryptography works. We will explain the basic principles of cryptography from the perspective of wallet users. We tell you how cryptographic tools are usually used. There will be some theory in the article, but we promise, no math. We will try to find analogies that facilitate understanding. The article does not aim to be comprehensive and terminologically accurate.
If you want to keep your ADA coins safe, you need to learn the basics. As you will see, you don’t have to remember that much. If you don’t want to deal with theory, look at least at the last section dedicated to wallets.
I have heard something about a key
Cryptography is the practice and bunch of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties called adversaries. Cryptography is about constructing protocols that prevent third parties or the public from reading private messages and data. It also deals with various aspects of information security, data confidentiality, data integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation.
Most users probably use cryptography for converting ordinary readable plain text into unintelligible, unreadable text (just a “mess of characters”, also called ciphertext) and vice-versa. Imagine that you have some text and you don’t want someone else to read it. It’s your secret you want to protect. At the same time, you want to be able to easily access the original form, or send the secret over the Internet to someone else and allow him to read the document.
Once the original text is converted into an unreadable form, nobody is able to deduce the original form. The content of the document is thus safely protected from misuse.
The conversion process, when a readable form of a document is converted into an unreadable form, is called encryption.
