# Gavin Andresen
# 2010-11-03 20:26:28
# https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1610.msg19910#msg19910

@s{quotedtext}
@s{quotedtext}
 @p{brk}
That's not right@p{--} the person paying you doesn't know your public key, they just know your bitcoin address (which is a 160-bit hash of your public key). @p{par}

You can (and I have) send bitcoins to ANY 160-bit bitcoin address, whether or not there actually is a public/private keypair corresponding to that address. @p{brk}