If Bitcoin Private addresses are passwords, then Bitcoin Public addresses can be looked at as being bank account numbers. These private and public addresses which are used to house and access the actual “Bitcoins” for your money are created completely randomly in a highly mathematical process. The software or program that is used to create one basically generates a very, very large and truly random number and then does something to this number to create a Bitcoin private address. This Bitcoin private address/key is then used to create a corresponding Bitcoin public address/key. Only the private address used to create that particular public address can unlock the funds in it; and enable the owner to transfer the funds to another Bitcoin public address.
The total number of possible private keys (and hence corresponding public keys) is truly immense. It is immense to the point that it is next to impossible for someone to randomly generate the same private key as you (not to mention it would be trivial for bitcoin programmers to extremely increase this number in the future if needed). This is partly the beauty of Bitcoin address creation. Anyone can create one but no one can create the same one as someone else. Anyone can create one in a completely offline environment, using software on a removable disk drive (such as a usb) and then completely delete all this data afterwards (after securely recording the addresses somewhere).
To get maximum security, this website recommends the following 4 main things to securely create, store and use your Bitcoin addresses:
- I. Install the Linux operating system onto a usb from an .iso file and use it to run Bitcoin wallet software.
- II. Create your Bitcoin addresses using wallet software run on the removable usb Linux operating system.
- III. Store your Bitcoin addresses using Method’s 3, 4, 5 and 6 (cold storage) shown on this website, and transact with your Bitcoin addresses using Method’s 1, 2 and 3 shown on this website.
- IV. Delete (completely format) all unsecured data stored on the usb device/s used to create the Bitcoin addresses.
Although these may sound complicated, the whole process is not hard to do, and is explained in depth on this website.