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A wallet address is a string of letters and numbers that designates a location of a cryptocurrency wallet. It is essentially a hashed version of a public key, with each wallet address having a different set of letters and numbers. Anyone can use it to send and receive crypto assets.
Sometimes, wallet addresses are used to participate in cryptocurrency airdrops, where tokens are distributed directly to qualifying addresses.
All cryptocurrency wallets have a wallet address, public key, and private key. A wallet address can be shared with anyone to send and receive crypto assets, while a private key ensures wallet security. In simple words, the wallet address is the bank account number and the private key is the account password.
So, if a sender knows the wallet address of a receiver, he or she can send cryptocurrencies to the wallet. Just like a bank account, an individual or institution can have multiple wallets.
All blockchains such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Binance Smart Chain have different wallet addresses. A Bitcoin address can come in two forms: a long string of letters and numbers that generally starts with 1, 3, or bc1, and a QR code that can be scanned.
A Bitcoin address might look like — 1CKa7k7RtaV4TRRcnjciVndBS8hNG1G9ip. Whereas, an ERC 20 wallet generally starts with “0x” and might look like — 0x77dce4813eC15650e57E1b999c197aad00bEc1c2.
Most cryptocurrency wallet addresses are anonymous. However, some addresses belonging to crypto exchanges, famous personalities, and institutions are publicly available or revealed by blockchain explorers. For instance, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s wallet address 0xab5801a7d398351b8be11c439e05c5b3259aec9b on Etherscan blockchain explorer is marked as “Vb.”
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