If I buy a wallet from a manufacturer, why can’t they just record what the private/public key is of the wallet they are sending me, and then attach that to my name in their database and then be able to trace all of my transactions afterwards using that wallet?
Is there a way around this?
Hey Tesh,
Not an expert but why would they do that? It would ruin their business. Although I agree technically it must be possible. I think if you buy a ledger nano s/x or a trezor from their website you are pretty safe. Just dont buy it second hand or from aliexpress or something like that. At least thats what I conclude after my research. You can also write your private key on paper but I find it not really practical. Also if you make one mistake you lose your crypto. Just my thoughts
Your private key is produced randomly when you set up the wallet for the first time (seed phrase), and so no one can know these words but you and whoever you tell (which should be nobody). After the private key (seed phrase) is accepted by you and confirmed, your wallet can generate all the public keys and addresses you need. The manufacturer could never predict your seed phrase or know how many public keys you will generate. Hope that helps.