Glossary

Just-a-Bunch-of-Keys (JBOK)

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A Just-a-Bunch-of-Keys (JBOK) wallet is a form of Bitcoin wallet which randomly generates new, unrelated keys as needed for the user. This wallet design preceded Hierarchical Deterministic (HD) wallets, and was far less efficient. In order to backup a JBOK wallet, a user needed to save every individual private key used by the wallet, a number which had no upper bound. JBOK wallets were replaced by HD wallets because HD wallets could be backed up via a single seed, and extended keys offered significant utility to users.

Related Terms
Wallet
A wallet is a piece of software which generates and stores public and private keys, allowing users to send, receive, and store bitcoin.
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Hierarchical Deterministic (HD) Wallet
A Hierarchical Deterministic Wallet is the term used to describe a wallet which uses a seed to derive many public and private keys. These keys are generated in a deterministic way, and are used to send and receive bitcoin.
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Private Key
A private key is used to send bitcoin which was received by the corresponding public key. While a private key can generate a public key, the reverse is not true.
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Seed
A seed is a piece of data which can be used to generate all of the public and private keys in a wallet. It is often represented as a Mnemonic Phrase.
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