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I'm totally new to Tezos but I'd like to have a paper wallet.

Apparently eztz by Stephen Andrews offers this service but I'd like to know how it works.

With BTC you have your private key, your public key for receiving bitcoins and you're done; if you try to generate keys on eztz you get 3 keys and a mnemonic, and if you want it you can also type your passphrase.

  • How do you use the keys you get on eztz?

For BTC wallets your private key was enough to claim the wallet.

  • What do you need to claim a wallet on Tezos?

  • On eztz I see 3 keys named pk, sk and pkh.What do they stand for?

Thank you, feel free to get more technical if you want.

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    pk = public key, sk = secret key, pkh = public key hash.
    – arvidj
    Feb 21, 2020 at 8:50
  • What's the public key hash purpose?Is it the key used to generate my public key starting from my secret key?
    – francesco
    Feb 21, 2020 at 9:31
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    First, you should read up on public key cryptography to understand the difference between the public and secret (also called private) key. The public key hash, is a hash of the public key. In Tezos, public key hashes are used as account identifiers.
    – arvidj
    Feb 21, 2020 at 11:13

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With regards to the difference between public key (pk), secret key (sk) and public key hash (pkh).

  • The public key is used by other people to send encrypted messages to you, and it is also used by other people to verify that messages you send actually are from you
  • The secret key is used by you to send messages
  • The public key hash is used to identify your account on the block chain.

As to why public keys must be revealed, see this following question.

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  • I guess my public key is my tezos address, but I can't figure out what the public key hash in practical usage
    – francesco
    Feb 21, 2020 at 13:52
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    No, actually it is the public key hash that is the address of your account. I'm not sure why we there is both public keys and public key hashes though.
    – arvidj
    Feb 22, 2020 at 15:07
  • The public key hash is used to identify your account instead of using the public key directly since it is shorter, and since there are some situations where you would not like to reveal your public key. You can however, and this is called a revelation.
    – arvidj
    Feb 23, 2020 at 11:47

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