How to create and manage bitcoin or other cryptocurrency addresses without wallets?

Question

bitcoin

Hello. Wallets that work with Bitcoin appeared long after Bitcoin itself appeared. But before that, people somehow created their addresses and managed them. Or, for example, there are many cryptocurrencies that do not have a wallet at all, but, nevertheless, they are listed on 1-2 exchanges. This means that exchanges work with them in some other way, not through wallets. I would like to get a detailed answer, since I am a beginner and this topic is very interesting for me.

Answer 1

First of all, let's clarify the terms a bit.
In cryptocurrencies, a wallet is understood as two things:
1. A set of private keys.
2. Software for managing private keys. Basically, consider this option. Further, under the wallet, I will mean this option.
The wallet is responsible for generating new private keys, obtaining public keys and addresses from them, obtaining transaction history, calculating and displaying the balance, creating transactions and signing them. In theory, all these operations can be done even on a piece of paper, but it's a bit complicated.
What the wallet does not:
- Does not store the blockchain. This is what network nodes do.
- Does not participate in mining, formation of new blocks, etc.
Cryptocurrency cannot exist without a wallet. It's like running a bank without being able to open an account with it. When creating any cryptocurrency, key management software is immediately created. In Bitcoin, as in most other cryptocurrencies, the key management module comes with a "full" node. However, you can create third-party wallets to manage the keys of this cryptocurrency: mobile, web, and so on.
Exchanges basically work according to this scheme:
1. Raise a "full" network node in order to be able to independently check incoming transactions.
2. They raise the wallet module and create their own set of private keys, new keys are generated for each user in order to distinguish which accounts the money will be transferred to. However, all keys are controlled by the exchange.

Answer 2

Wallets that work with Bitcoin appeared long after Bitcoin itself appeared.

The very first version of the program was the wallet, and now you can also install it, but it will only take more than 100 GB to synchronize the entire history. After some time, alternative implementations of wallets began to appear, including lightweight ones that pump out a minimum of data from the network. But these were all PC clients. A little later, wallet sites appeared, for which everything is already synchronized - they work the fastest and the least reliable in terms of security. At the same time, we made hardware implementations and filed versions for smartphones.
And what are cryptocurrencies without off-wallets and why do you think they are worthy of mention?

Answer 3

The original and very first bitcoin client had a wallet on board. A wallet is a file (more precisely, a Berkeley DB database) that contains your private digital signature key used to confirm transactions, a public confirmation key, and plus a set of digital identifiers for generated wallets.
without an on-wallet (more precisely, without a private key), you cannot do anything in the bitcoin network. it is the basis of bitcoin.
on each exchange, an account is opened for each user in a common wallet or a separate wallet. you work with him.
accordingly, you completely transfer the care of your money to the exchange.
a particular user does not need a transaction history, therefore later clients simply downloaded the necessary fragments from the servers.
history is needed for the system to work, more precisely, the more copies of the history there are on the network, the better.
Therefore, at first it was thrust into each client.

Answer 4

A little different from what they are trying to explain here.
Without a wallet, of course, cryptocurrency can and does work. The wallet is just a shell program. Another thing is exactly what you mean by "works".
It is possible to transfer currency to any address without the existence of any "wallet", as such, and this transaction will be reflected in the blockchain forever, and the address in the same place, in the blockchain, will have a balance as the difference between inputs and outputs.
To create (generate) a public / private key pair (private / public), no wallets are needed.
Further, by hashing the public key, the address is obtained. Storing the private key with a password (or without) occurs in the wallet.dat file (usually). And synchronization is carried out by a demon - special. a program that is not a wallet in the conventional sense of the term "wallet". Now the rpc client for remote procedure calls can be identified with the wallet, although this is also not the case.
GUI wallets, such as the popular BitcoinCore and Electrum, generate 100 private/public key pairs on initial startup, i.e. 100 addresses are reserved initially and stored in the wallet.dat file to be used as both receiving and change addresses, ie. remainder between inputs and outputs. It will not delve into the philosophy of a single use of addresses and change, but this is already the work of a full-fledged wallet, i.e. programs for managing keys and transactions.