# Public Key

*Crypto & Digital Assets — Finicade finance glossary*

A public key, and the address derived from it, is what you share to receive funds — safe to publish, and impossible to work backwards to the private key.

A public key, and the address derived from it, is what you share to receive funds — safe to publish, mathematically linked to a private key that cannot be derived from it. Addresses are pseudonymous rather than anonymous: every transaction is permanently public, so once an address is tied to an identity, its entire history is too. That's the basis of all on-chain analysis.

**Also known as:** wallet address, public address, receiving address

**Related terms:** [Private Key](https://finicade.com/glossary/private-key), [Seed Phrase](https://finicade.com/glossary/seed-phrase), [Block Explorer](https://finicade.com/glossary/block-explorer), [Hash Function](https://finicade.com/glossary/hash-function), [On-Chain Analysis](https://finicade.com/glossary/on-chain-analysis)

Source: https://finicade.com/glossary/public-key