The writing is on the proverbial wall with central banks late to the party to tame the inflationary beasts.

We are receiving a torrent of data points from around the world that is indicative of the financial situation in so many countries now.

Central Banks are hellbent on slow-playing this rate rise thing simply because they don’t want to be the ones responsible for crashing the system.

It’s just easier to go lower for longer than try to raise rates too fast.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) appreciation is directly correlated with a rise in the pace of hyperinflation.

Just look at Canada today — it released some bowel-disturbing inflation data.

Consumer prices in Canada rose at their fastest rate in 18 years in September, as the country continued to get smacked around with global supply chain issues.

The annual inflation rate hit 4.4%, up from 4.1% in August, its highest level since February 2003.

The costs of transport, housing, and food all jumped, the country's official statistics agency said.

Canada's central bank, which meets next week to decide whether to raise interest rates, is watching the chaos in real-time.

Inflation will get worse before it gets betters and that’s what this 4^th wave of the pandemic hitting the European continent tells us.

Don’t think that supply chains are going back to smooth management anytime soon.

A combination of surging consumer demand, global supply chain issues, product shortages, and rising oil prices are driving up the cost of living from pandemic-era lows.

It was only a few weeks ago when The British army began delivering gas to British gas stations on Monday after 100,000 Polish truck drivers decided it wasn’t worth the money to go through a bevy of draconian restrictions from PCR testing, harsh visa rules, and the uncertainty of even spending nights in their truck.

They decided to go back to their families in Poland and Europe is going through a worker shortage similar to the US.

Almost 200 military tanker personnel, 100 of which were drivers, were deployed to provide temporary support as part of the government's wider action to further relieve pressure on gas stations.

If gas deliveries fail to make it to the gas station, might as well sit home and use that fat finger to buy up some crypto.

Of course, this kind of inflation is a tax on the consumer, on the public, on businesses. And it's a regressive tax that will over time undermine the purchasing power of salaries.

If one were happy over an $8,000 per year raise, most everyday Joe would be, that money is pretty much going back to the servicers one already pays because prices are higher for the same services.

Not much bang for the buck which is why readers are connecting the dots to splurge in crypto investing.

Billionaires are starting to come out of the woodwork to tell everybody that they “underinvested” in crypto.

Hindsight is 20 — 20.

If this winter delivers nasty weather, then expect logistics to slow to a crawl.

In the U.S., meat was one of the food items most affected by inflation, becoming more than 10% more expensive over the course of a year.

Eggs’ price increase even exceeded 12%, while fruits and vegetables rose by 3%, fats by 7%, and eating out by almost 20%.

And these prices could look cheap by January if we get a perfect storm of pandemic-related logistic problems, driver shortages, more countries executing a hard lockdown like Latvia just did, panic buying, and historically bad global governance.

Can the global governance these days get worse?

Effectively, the rise in crypto prices is symptomatic of lost ironclad faith in certain bedrock institutions that have seen better times.

It’s hard not seeing bitcoin going ballistic into year-end and $100,000 in 2022.

Cryptography transcends use cases from intelligence agencies — military writing — decoding confidential text messages.

Public and private keys are an important part of Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies.

They allow you to send and receive cryptocurrency without requiring a third party to verify the transactions.

The basic concept behind the two-key system is the following:

• the public key allows you to receive transactions, while the private key is necessary to send transactions.
• Using two different keys (a public and a private key) is called asymmetric cryptography.

What Is a Public Key?

A public key allows you to receive cryptocurrency transactions.

It’s a cryptographic code that’s connected to a private key.

While anyone can send transactions to the public key, one needs the private key to “unlock” it and prove ownership of the cryptocurrency received in the transaction.

Therefore, freely sharing a public key is without risk.  

While anyone can send the public key safely, someone would need the private key to unlock and access these sent funds.

What Is a Private Key?

A private key offers the ability to prove ownership or spend the funds associated with a public address. A private key is unique and can take many forms:

• 256 character long binary code
• 64-digit hexadecimal code
• QR code
• Mnemonic phrase

What Does It Mean to “Digitally Sign” a Transaction?

For a transaction on the blockchain to be complete, it needs to be signed. The steps for someone to send a transaction are:

• A transaction is encrypted using a public key. The transaction can only be decrypted by the corresponding private key.
• The transaction is signed using the private key confirming the transaction hasn’t been modified.
• The digital signature is generated through combining the private key with the data being sent in the transaction.
• Lastly, the transaction is verified as authentic using the accompanying public key.

Digitally signing a transaction means to prove the owner of the sent funds. Nodes check and authenticate transactions automatically. Any unauthenticated transactions get rejected by the network.

Where Are My “Private Keys?”

Private keys are in a cryptocurrency wallet, which is usually on a smartphone, desktop software or a specialized hardware device.

Private keys are not on the cryptocurrency blockchain network.

If crypto assets are held on an exchange, then the exchange is the custodian of these private keys.

How public and private keys work together is essential to understanding how cryptocurrency transacts.  

Buying crypto is effectively owning a private key that proves ownership of that cryptocurrency.

Since the record is stored on the blockchain, anyone can verify the individual as the owner with a specific public key.

Just remember that deferring to a crypto exchange to hold a private key means a crypt holder trusts them with the security of protecting their crypto assets.

There is always the choice of taking custody of one’s own crypto in a hot or cold wallet.

Depending on the degree of comfort, philosophy, risk-tolerance, and amount, readers can make that decision for themselves.

Private keys are something that should never be shared.

And if one eschews their own private wallet for a custodial solution like an exchange, seek out a time-honored, trusted, dealing in large volume, and highly functional exchange instead of a marginal, half-baked exchange.