Using MetaMask as an example, the process of creating a cryptocurrency wallet is roughly as follows:
Download the mobile app from website or add the chrome extension
Create a login password
Backups your secret recovery phrase
Basic Concept: Account = Bank Card Number Private key = Bank Card Number and Bank Card PIN Secret recovery phrase = Private key
After creating MetaMask successfully, you can create lots of accounts and view or manage the cryptocurrency and NFT in each account. But these assets are not kept in your wallet. Because in Ethereum, almost all data is stored on the blockchain, only your own Private Key is kept locally.
In addition to managing your assets, another important role of the wallet is to keep your private key. And having a private key gives you control over your wallet.
Private key consists of 64-bit hexadecimal letters of high precision.
eg. 07e298880c2b363e8…5c641b51fb023c48986
Private keys are used to generate payment signatures and prove ownership of funds. Having a private key is equivalent to having control of the asset, so it must be kept confidential and not disclosed to others. Each private key corresponds to the control of a wallet account.
The function of a SRP is the same as that of a private key, so you can think of it as a simplified version of a private key. Since private keys are difficult to record manually, SRP are created for this reason.
To make it easier for users to remember, the seed phrase must correspond to the correct order and words and are only displayed once when sign up a wallet, so be sure to note it down when you register. MetaMask can create multiple accounts, each with its own private key, sharing the same set of seed phrase.
The wallet account on the Ethereum chain is 42 bits