How to Explain Public-Key Cryptography and Digital Signatures to Anyone

[robertino.calcaterra]

Here’s an easy-to-understand analogy to help your non-technical friends and customers understand public keys and private keys, and how they relate to cryptography and digital signatures.
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Brought to you by @AccordionGuy

[robertino.calcaterra]

Howdy everybody! Let us know if you have any questions on this front!

[dkwnelmezzo]

This is a really helpful article. Thank you. I think it will help me explain this to people in ways that I never could before.

I believe you have a mistake in one paragraph. It says:

‘Using the private key, you “sign” the message by locking it, turning the key counterclockwise from the “12:00” position to the “9:00” position.’

I think the word “counterclockwise” should be “clockwise” in that paragraph.

[konrad.sopala]

Thanks for catching that! I’ll make sure to rely it to appropriate team!

[shawn.fumo]

konrad, FYI I just checked and that mistake doesn’t seem to have been corrected.

[konrad.sopala]

Thanks for repinging me. @AccordionGuy (article author) can you look into this? Thank you!