Skip to content
Henk van Cann edited this page Sep 21, 2023 · 4 revisions

Definition

A crypto wallet is a device, physical medium, program or a service which stores the public and/or private keys for cryptocurrency transactions and digital identifiers.
Paraphrased by @henkvancann from source Wikipedia

KERI and ACDC context

A wallet is a collection of data stores; made up of a keystore, local and remote key event log database and credential database. So it is a superset of a keystore.
Source: Philip Feairheller.

In a broader context a wallet can be seen as software and sometimes hardware that serves as a keystore and functionality. Keys can be private keys and public keys, and the wallet could contain hashes and pointers. Functionality can be signing, invoices (receive), send, virtual credentials, delegation, etc. This functionality is the agency part of a wallet.
More about digital ID Wallets
More about cryto Wallets.

Functions

In addition to this basic function of storing the keys, it's also used to storing verifiable credentials (VCs). A cryptocurrency wallet more often also offers the functionality of encrypting and/or signing information.\
Signing can for example result in executing a smart contract, a cryptocurrency transaction, identification or legally signing a 'document'.
More on source Wikipedia

KERI and ACDC related

A 'wallet' in KERI would typically refer to the basic function of storing the keys, a wallet in ACDC is more focussed on storing verifiable credentials (VCs).\
KERI explicitly distinguishes keystore and wallet; the latter being a superset of the former. Keep is KERI's and ACDC's user interface with Keripy agent API as a back end.

Clone this wiki locally