Glossary Crypto & Web3
Private key
The secret number that authorises spending from a crypto address. Anyone who has it controls the funds, and there is no institution able to reverse a transfer or reissue a lost key.
Seen in our coverage of Private key
Stories where this term does real work, rather than appearing in passing.
More from the glossary
Large language model
A model trained on vast amounts of text to predict what comes next, which turns out…
Bond
A loan to a government or company that pays interest and returns the principal at maturity.…
Custody
Who actually holds the keys. Self-custody means you do; a custodian means a regulated firm does,…
Referendum
A direct public vote on a single question. Whether the result binds the government depends on…