With Ethereum, signatures are a way of providing evidence that a specific user has access to a specific address.
For example, if user A wants to provide evidence to user B that user A has access to address X, they could sign a message with their private key, stating that user A has access to address X, then share the signed signature with user B. If the signature is correct, user B can verify that user A has access to address X without user A ever having to share their private key to user B.
Signing a Message
- Go to the message signing page on MyCrypto.
- Access your wallet.
- Enter the message that you wish to use to prove your ownership of the address.
- Click the big blue "Sign Message" button.
- Your signed message will appear in a box below. It should look a bit like this:
{
"address": "0x2a3052ef570a031400BffD61438b2D19e0E8abef",
"msg": "This is proof that I, user A, have access to this address.",
"sig": "0x4e1ce8ea60bc6dfd4068a35462612495850cb645a1c9f475eb969bff21d0b0fb414112aaf13f01dd18a3527cb648cdd51b618ae49d4999112c33f86b7b26e9731b",
"version": "2"
}
You can use this message as proof that you own an address, and share it with anyone.
Verifying a Message
- Go to the message verifying page on MyCrypto.
- Enter the signed message that you want to check, and click "Verify Message."
If the signature is correct, a green bar will be displayed.