Address

Beginner

Much like an address in the real world, or a website, an address on the blockchain relates to the string of text given to identify a particular place or user. More specifically it is the string of text that designates the location of a particular wallet on the blockchain, that can be used to send or receive digital assets.

All blockchains have some sort of wallet or account addresses, and most take the form of a long string of letters and numbers that is difficult for a human to interpret but easily understood by a computer network.

For example, a Bitcoin address will look something like the following:
bc1qeppvcnauqak9xn7mmekw4crr79tl9c8lnxpp2k
And an address on the Ethereum network might look like the following:
0x77dce4813eC15650e57E1b999c197aad00bEc1c2

Given the public nature of most blockchains, it is possible to see how much, and which type, of digital assets most wallets contain, though this is not true for some private blockchains or privacy-focused cryptocurrencies.

Most cryptocurrency addresses on a blockchain network are pseudonymous as no personally identifiable information is required when setting up a new wallet address on the blockchain. However, they are not completely anonymous and some addresses are publicly known to be tied to people or institutions.

For instance, Vitalik Buterin has Ethereum addresses that are publicly known. There are also Bitcoin addresses with large amounts of BTC that are known to belong to Satoshi Nakamoto.

Public blockchains are susceptible to being tracked by anyone, and there are many software and tools that are used to monitor cryptocurrency wallets, tracking the in and out flow of digital asses.