Keys, Wallets, and Signatures

Ownership on a blockchain is enforced with cryptography, not with a help desk. Your wallet proves control because it can sign on your behalf.

That makes the private key the most important secret in the system. It stays with you, while the network only needs enough information to verify the signature.

This is why self-custody is powerful and unforgiving at the same time. If you control the key, you control the assets. If you lose it, there is no password reset built into the chain.

Later chapters will show how wallets package this into a usable interface, but the core logic always comes back to keys and signatures.