Brendan Lee: How to prove ownership of a Bitcoin address
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Do you know how public and private keys are generated? Can you verify a digital signature? If you answered no to any of these questions, don’t be ashamed because you are not alone! With all the articles and opinion pieces out there about Bitcoin, there is still a distinct lack of understanding of how the technology actually works.
In fact, a 2021 YouGov poll found that 98% of respondents did not understand basic crypto concepts.
At this week’s CoinGeek Conversations, Charles Miller once again enlisted the help of BSV Blockchain Association Training and Development Manager Brendan Lee to help him get to the bottom of a few key concepts.
When the two last spoke in February 2021, Brendan shared what really happens when a transaction is made on the Bitcoin network and how exactly coins are moved from one wallet to another. This time Charles wants to find out what a digital signature is and how it can be used to verify ownership of a Bitcoin address.
First they discuss public and private keys, with Brendan explaining that the two keys exist as a pair, with the private key being generated first and the public key being cryptographically generated from the private key.
The conversation then moves on to bitcoin wallets, which store an individual’s private keys. Brendan says that Electrum, a wallet software with some additional features, is a good way to allow users to prove their ownership of keys by using those keys to sign messages and create digital signatures.
Brendan explains that in order to generate a signature, a user must first select an address and enter a custom message. Once this signature is created, any other user can decrypt and verify the signed message provided they have the custom message, signature, and public key.
While the technology may seem complicated, Brendan says the math used to generate signatures and verify keys was nothing new when Satoshi used it in Bitcoin software.
“He didn’t really do anything new; He just took something that already existed, was well tested, very proven, and very trusted as a technology, and then applied it as a digital cash system,” he says.
Charles and Brendan also do a hands-on demonstration of Electrum and show how it can be used to prove control of a specific set of private keys. This is particularly interesting given that Dr. Craig Wright Gavin Andresen demonstrated his control of the Satoshi keys in this way in 2016.
For more information on Bitcoin technology, see this previous CoinGeek talk: Brendan Lee: What Really Happens When You Make a Bitcoin Payment
Hear the entire interview with Brendan Lee on this week’s CoinGeek Conversations Podcast or catch up on other recent episodes:
You can also watch the podcast video on YouTube.
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New to Bitcoin? Check out CoinGeeks Bitcoin for beginners Section, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about Bitcoin – as originally envisioned by Satoshi Nakamoto – and blockchain.