Nano Wallet - Account / Address / Public Key explanation needed

Technical Discussion
#1

Hello.

I just started using Nano Wallet (Windows) and I have successfully deposited some XEM from Poloniex.
In Nano Wallet, I find the following terms: Account, Address & Public Key.

From what I understand, these terms mean the following:

Account: The Mainnet XEM account, to which my wallet is connected. Any transfers to my wallet comes through this account. But the account is in no way “my” account.

Address: My wallet’s address, used to receive XEM. This is my deposit/withdrawal address, to which my private key is connected.

Public key: Nano Wallet says “You must make a transaction first to get a public key”. I do not understand what the public key is actually used for, could someone please explain this to me?

When I go to check my XEM holdings in a block explorer, I can just look up the address (which is called “Public Key” for most other cryptocurrencies), so I am very confused about what the “Public key” refers to in NEM.

Thanks in advance, I hope someone could please explain these terms for me?

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#2

Your account is the wlt file, It will store all the address’ that you add to it.

Your address is essentially the public key. It’s purpose is to give you something that is easier to handle than a long string of characters.

#3

In that case I’m very confused: When I look up the account in nembex block explorer, I get a balance of 220,839,940.478061 XEM…And I only own 1900 XEM, this is the balance I get when searching up my address in nembex block explorer. How can my account/wlt file show a balance of 220 million XEM?

Thanks in advance.

#4

Please paste your address here. It sounds like you are looking at an exchanges address, not yours.

#5

Here is the address showing up under Dashboard - Account in Nano Wallet:
NBZMQO-7ZPBYN-BDUR7F-75MAKA-2S3DHD-CIFG77-5N3D.
This is the one which shows 220 million XEM.

The address which shows up under Send - Receive is:
NC6UTS4O4AWMYJGKVEGDFJMCR2CC7XLRIBZUFYJH
This is the one which shows my correct amount of XEM (1900 XEM)

#6

To see your address, click on the ‘account’ tab in the top navigation bar of nanowallet.

The address you are linking is a recent transaction, it looks like you got some xem sent to your nanowallet from poloniex.

Then that is your address.

#7

Thanks a lot for the explanation.

I see now how I got confused: After I made the first deposit to my new wallet, I could only see a single line under Dashboard - Account. As a newbie to NEM, I intially thought the address under Account was an address somehow connected to my wallet - when it was in fact the address from which my first deposit came from (Poloniex).

Thanks again for your help and great input to a person new to NEM.

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#8

how would I get that public key though? bittrex says “The address you submitted is not valid for the XEM network. Cancel this withdrawal and resubmit it.”

#9

I searched for your adress you posted in the other thread but couldnt find it. You sure thats the correct adress of your wallet?

#10

This message often appear when you attach message in Bittrex withdraw window. If you withdraw to nanowallet you can leave message empty. If you withdraw to other exchange I suggest you to first withdraw to nanowallet and next send from nano wallet to other exchange.

"You need to make a transaction to get a public key"
#11

hi! pawelm said the right thing - I tried not to put a message in the transaction and it went through. Weird you could not find the address though, because it is the one I managed to send my XEM to.

thanks for prompt reply anyways!

1 Like
#12

Yes. This is strange bug with Bittrex :slight_smile: