Coin Metrics’ State of the Network: Issue 204
coinmetrics.substack.com/p/state-of-the-network-issue-204
What Jamie wrote
This article is a pretty simple explainer on how blockchain addresses are generated. It specifically goes through Ethereum accounts and smart contracts as well as Bitcoin. I was curious as I've started using many different accounts on Ethereum, and in many cases dedicating an account per applications I use in Ethereum. I do the same thing with email addresses but generating unique email addresses for every site I have an account on.
Next, that private key, which is really just a number, is used as an input to the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm, or ECDSA for short. As the name suggests, the algorithm uses elliptic curves to produce another number, 512-bits (64 bytes) in length, referred to as the public key. These two numbers are collectively referred to as a Public-Private Key Pair.
This is the magic part that allows Ethereum addresses to be created, but I’m still not sure if there is a maximum number of addresses that one private key can create. 🤔