android-lewis
commented
3 years ago - Attackers can monitor patterns to determine traits of the user
- In a wallet, your master private key is used to determine other private keys and then public keys from that generated private key
- If you need a new private key it can be generated from the master private key
- Then you only need to remember the master private key
- HD Wallets do this automatically to avoid tracking
- In an organisation for example, a master private key could be kept to generate private keys for their employees to use, while still being able to track the organisational transactions between all employees
- A master public key can recreate an generated public key, this could be useful for external auditing where private key access is not needed
- To keep a master private key safe, a 12 word mnemonic could be used to recreate it
- https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BIP_0032