Cryptocurrency address (Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Dogecoin) – what it is, what it looks like, where to find and get it. Full overview with examples and explanations

Motivated by the unprecedented excitement around virtual currencies, ordinary people who have free access to the World Wide Web join a multi-million army of miners, stock speculators, or simply buy cryptocurrencies in the hope of capitalizing on the growth of the rate. However, crypto coins are not fiat money, so a traditional bank, wallet or, at worst, a mattress for storing crypts will not work.

Having created a wallet in an online service, on an exchange (rating of reliable cryptocurrency exchanges) or by downloading a software client, the user is puzzled by the question of how to use the service: to carry out transactions, replenish the balance, make transfers, etc. To carry out the necessary operations in a cryptocurrency wallet, you need to know what is a cryptocurrency address, what it looks like, where it is located, how to find it and use it, etc. The user will find answers to these questions in this article using the example of “popular” crypto coins, which include BTC, ETH, LTC, XRP, DOGE.

Important! Cryptocurrency wallet address – in fact, the identification number of the electronic wallet (not to be confused with the wallet ID number), with the help of which the necessary financial operations are carried out: deposit / withdrawal of cryptoassets, transfer of coins to other recipients, etc. For clarity: in the cryptocurrency world, the email address wallet (public key) – like in real life a 16-digit set of numbers on a bank card.

Nuance. If you need to determine the cryptocurrency by address, then you can use the special services walletexplorer.com.

General information

It does not matter what kind of coin we are talking about, the address of the cryptocurrency is the point where the tokens are located in the Blockchain, which is necessary for storing digital assets with the subsequent implementation of any financial transactions. Visually, the electronic storage identifier is a set of randomly generated numbers and letters of the lower and upper case Latin alphabet. The number of generated symbols depends directly on the crypto coin. Crypto-assets are manipulated using the following components:

✅  Creation of a private key (code) – all confidential information about the user and his virtual capital.

✅  Generation of a public code (wallet address), which carries publicly available information about the recipient, the time of the transaction, the amount of the transfer.

✅  E-wallet ID number.

Simply put, the first step is to generate private code. A public code is formed on the basis of the confidential key through hashing (the method is the same – a random set of characters). An individual virtual wallet number is assigned to the wallet after authorization on the resource. As a rule, you can see your own identifier by clicking on the “Receive” option, which is located in any cryptocurrency wallet popular among users. If there is no such function, you can try your luck in the “Balance” section, in particular, activate the “Top up balance” option in this tab.

Important! The address of the cryptocurrency cannot be calculated by the end result – the public key, especially by the ID number. The private code gives free access to cryptoassets: careful storage of this key is the key to the security of tokens. On the other hand, the public key is generated anew with each transaction: there is no point in copying and storing it.

Bitcoin address

Bitcoin cryptocurrency wallet address (Bitcoin, BTC) is an open source code that consists of the following parameters:

• number of characters – from 27 to 34 characters;
• start with numbers 1 or 3;
• to avoid typos, the characters “0” and “O” are not used, as well as the Latin letters “l” (low case of the letter L) and “I” (high case of the letter “i”).

The bitcoin address looks like this (on the right is the private key that corresponds to it):

As mentioned above, the public code is re-generated with every new financial transaction. This mechanism is integrated to improve the security of crypto assets. In this case, the “old” keys remain in the user’s archive and do not lose their activity – that is. if someone transferred funds to the previous address, the recipient’s balance is replenished. By the way, there is an option to disable the generation of new addresses. However, by activating it, the user enables third parties to trace the entire history of their own financial transactions using a fixed (unchanging) public key.

Important! It is advisable to enter the address of the cryptocurrency wallet not manually, but using the “Copy” option, which is present in all popular Bitcoin wallets. The fact is that it is not difficult to get confused and make mistakes in a chain of randomly formed symbols. In this case, virtual coins will leave the Bitcoin wallet to the wrong addressee, and it is impossible to get them back, as in a centralized financial institution.

Ethereum cryptocurrency address

The Ethereum cryptocurrency wallet address is different:

✅  code length – from 40 to 44 characters;

✅  the line always starts with “0x”.

Ethereum address looks like this:

To see and copy the public “ether” key, you need to take the following steps: install a local wallet on your PC, register an online wallet or use other methods (list of Ethereum wallets), then click on the “New Address” option and activate the “Receive” function in the opened tab. There are differences regarding the type of client, but, as a rule, the order of actions and the name of the options correspond to the voiced material. In the section for receiving crypts, we see and, if necessary, copy the address.

Litecoin wallet addresses

As a fork of the “bitcoin” cryptocurrency Litecoin (Litecoin, LTC) copies the parameters of the public key of its “big brother”. Here, too, the number of characters – up to 34 characters randomly generated, including numbers and letters of the Latin alphabet of high and low case. The same symbols are prohibited for use as in Bitcoin.

An example of a Litecoin address:

You can see the public code, for example, in the official Litecoin Core wallet, by following the instructions below:

✅  Install the client on your own PC by downloading it from the official website of the crypto project.

✅  After authorization, open the “File” tab, where we click on the “Receiving address” option.

✅  A public key will appear in the window that appears, which we copy and send to the user who wants to transfer some funds to it, or paste it for conversion on an online exchanger.

In order not to make a mistake in the process of manually entering the public key or not to bother with copying, you can use the QR code. To read it, you need special software, but there is no need to find out the identifier of the LTC virtual storage. It is advisable to use a QR code on mobile clients.

Addresses for Ripple and Dogecoin cryptocurrencies

The addresses of the Ripple (XRP, Ripple) and Dogecoin (DOGE, Dogcoin) cryptocurrencies, their parameters (line length, where to see and take) will be combined into a table:

Cryptocurrency	Number of characters in a public address	Instructions for copying the wallet address
Ripple (XRP)	Up to 34 characters	To see and perform, if necessary, the appropriate actions with the public Ripple address, you need to log into your account on the Gatehub platform (the service is selected as an example, since it is the most popular storage among holders of this token) or any other Ripple wallet. Then go to the “Wallet” section, to the page of your own wallet. At the bottom of the page, in the “Wallet Address” window, the address of the XPR cryptocurrency wallet will be indicated.
Dogecoin	Up to 34 characters	On the DogeChain.info resource, we go through the registration of the wallet, which does not take much time – just a couple of minutes. After authorization and receipt of the private key, which must be stored in a safe place, we find the open code, that is, the wallet identifier, by activating the “Open You Wallet” option. In the tab that appears, we will find the desired object.

An example of the address and private key of the Ripple cryptocurrency (XRP, Ripple):

Dogecoin addresses:

In custody

Let us briefly summarize all of the above: the private key that determines the address of the cryptocurrency must be stored, and preferably not on the Web, but on good old paper, away from prying eyes. The public code, which is the address of the cryptocurrency wallet, is, on the contrary, published openly – otherwise, the funds will simply not be credited to the user’s account, since it is not clear where to send them.