A wallet holds keys, not coins
On a public chain, the coins are entries on the ledger. What you keep is the key material that can authorize a spend. Software and hardware “wallets” are tools for storing those keys and building transactions. If the keys are gone, the coins are still on the ledger — they are just unreachable.
BitBuddy’s dashboard wallet is not that. It is a practice balance in our database. There is no seed phrase, no on-chain address, and nothing to withdraw. Treat it as a spreadsheet with buttons.
Addresses, public keys, and private keys
At a high level you will hear three words:
- Private key — a secret number. It signs a transaction. Anyone who has it can spend.
- Public key — derived from the private key. Used to verify a signature.
- Address — a shorter form you can share so someone can pay you. Sharing an address is normal. Sharing a private key is not.
You do not need the elliptic-curve math to use the idea safely: share the
address, never the secret.
The
wallet sandbox
lets you click through a fake address and a TEST-ONLY key pair
so the words are not only on this page.
Seed phrases — the rule that matters
Most modern wallets turn a long private key into a list of 12 or 24 ordinary words (a seed phrase or recovery phrase). Those words are the wallet. Anyone who has the list can recreate the keys on another device and send the funds.
Never share a seed phrase. Not with “support.” Not with a Discord moderator. Not with a site that asks you to “validate” or “sync” your wallet. BitBuddy will never ask for one. We do not have real keys to recover.
Write a real seed on paper or another offline backup if you later use a self-custody wallet. Do not screenshot it. Do not store it in email. Do not paste it into a form to “check if it is valid.”
Custodial vs self-custody
Self-custody means you hold the keys. You can send without asking a company. You also cannot call a bank if you lose the paper.
Custodial means a company holds the keys for you — a typical exchange account works this way. You log in with a password and (we hope) two-factor authentication. You take platform risk: freezes, hacks, insolvency, identity checks, and that company’s fees.
Neither model is automatically “safer.” They fail in different ways. A licensed exchange may be the right tool for someone who wants password reset and a named legal entity. A hardware wallet may be the right tool for someone who has practiced recovery and can keep a backup. This page does not pick for you.
How people lose access
- Phishing. A look-alike site or a rushed chat asks for the seed.
- Malware. Clipboard stealers swap an address you pasted.
- Lost backup. Device dies, words were never written down.
- Shared seed. A “giveaway” or “tech support” that was always theft.
The scams lesson walks through those patterns in more detail. If a stranger needs your seed to “help” you, they are not helping.
What BitBuddy will never do
We will not generate a real seed. We will not ask you to import one. We will not show a QR code that looks like a deposit address for this classroom. When you open the paper wallet, you are moving simulated units against a $10,000 practice cash balance. That spreadsheet is separate from the wallet sandbox, which keeps fake keys in your session only.
See keys, not just read about them
Create a demo wallet with a bbtest1… address, receive toy
classroom units, and sign a send. DEMO ONLY — never enter a real seed.
Next on the 10-minute path: the wallet sandbox. On the full classroom path: what Bitcoin is, including a live market snapshot used only as a teaching prop.