What are public and private keys?

Public keys

Public keys are how others can send transactions to your account. It is the email address of your wallet, basically, with private keys being the password.

Private keys

Private keys are how you access your account, your address on a blockchain. They’re automatically generated when a wallet is created - in a combination of letters and numbers - and used to prove that you are the owner of that address.

When you send funds from a Blockchain wallet, you “sign” the transaction with your private key. This indicates to the entire blockchain that you are the owner of that specific wallet and have the authority to use the funds stored in it.

As the name suggests, they should be kept private, secret, and safe since the wallet cannot distinguish between if it is the intended person using the key, or a hacker.