Crytocurrency is a digital asset which have become quite popular for medium of exchange to buy good and service, hence it is a type of virtual currency as defined by Internal Revenue Service, USA. It uses strong cryptography to have secure transaction and also decentralized network is used as oppesed to any one entity to control. You can know more about Cryptocurrency at Wikipedia and IRS.
Cryptocurrency as of now is treated as property for legal purposes in USA, however, El Salvoder is the only and first country to accept Bitcoin as legel tender. You can read more about in this article. Although it is treated as property in USA, many companies or services have started accepting Cryptocurrency as form of payment. This google search might help you to know which companies accepts cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin is the most popular and first proof of concept that cryptocurrency can be used as digital currency started in the year of 2009. It was created by an unknown entity, to this date identity is not found. Bitcoin is a decentralized currency, it uses peer-to-peer bitcoin networks regardless of a single main authority, as it directly bypasses the need for a mediator. Bitcoin transactions are from user to user and transaction detail can be found on the blockchain publically.
There are more that 100 cryptocurrency/digital asssets, most common are Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Binance Coin, Cardano, Chainlink, Dogecoin, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, Polkadot, Steller, Tether, XRP, and more.
A general definition of wallet is where you store your money, it is the same for crypto-wallets, crypto wallets stores your Cryptocurrency. In detail, Crypto wallets stores your public keys and private keys, public key or public address is your wallet's public account number. A private key is your password for that wallet, it is very important to secure your wallet's private key. If you lose your private key you lose the Cryptocurrency of that wallet, hence it is also advised that you do not share your private key because one can export all of the cryptocurrency with the private key.
There are many types of wallets but they identify into these two categories, hot wallet, and cold wallet.
A hot wallet is a wallet that is connected to the internet directly, like crypto exchange wallets such as Coinbase or Gemini, mobile crypto wallets such as Trust, and any crypto wallet that can be accessed online easily.
A cold wallet is a wallet that is not connected online, physical hardware crypto wallets such as Ledger's hardware wallet, paper wallets which we use in the creation of crypto cards for you, and any offline device which have installed on-device software to store cryptocurrency.
However, it is advertised that hot wallets are vulnerable to online attacks such as getting hacked or discovering private keys, that does not mean cold wallets are invulnerable. Cold wallets in general are a great way to store your cryptocurrency but you will need a hot wallet for being able to do crypto transactions with ease.
A private key is generated from random numbers and are adhere to cryptocurrency cryptography, which is your default password, and it is only for you. A private key is used to transfer or withdraw cryptocurrency, for example, if you have a cold wallet and you want to transfer that cold wallet to a hot wallet you will need a private key or seed phrase to make that transfer. However, private keys are always unique, and it is unlikely to have duplicate private keys in theory.
A public address is where a user can send you cryptocurrency, for ease of understanding think as it is your wallet's public name, so one can find you easily and send crypto to you directly. Although a public address is created or derived from your wallet's private key, one can not decrypt a private key from the public key.
In theory it is not possible because chance of that happining is 1 in 340 Undecillion, that's like adding 36 Zeros to 340. Although duplicate keys are not generated once trasaction of crypto wallet is recorded in public ledger, but if in any case that happens to you then you might be a lucky person.
Investopedia : Cryptocurrency
NerdWallet : What Is Cryptocurrency? Here’s What You Should Know
CNBC : What is cryptocurrency? Here’s what you need to know about blockchain, coins and more
There are many more resources that you can find online regarding Cryptocurrency, if you have any question please feel free to ask.
www.giftCrypto.us