Glossary · Infrastructure

What is xpub?

An extended public key is the watch-only half of a hierarchical wallet: from one xpub, a merchant derives unlimited receive addresses without ever exposing a key that can spend. The checkout generates a fresh address per invoice; the spending keys never left cold storage.

The pattern buys privacy, no address reuse, no change clustering, and security, the surface that watches cannot move funds. It is how serious Bitcoin acceptance has worked since the early blocks.

xpub on U.CASH

Bitcoin checkouts on U.CASH can settle to an xpub: every invoice gets its own derived address, and the merchant's spending keys stay wherever the merchant keeps them.

See also

UTXOCold wallet

xpub: FAQ

Is sharing an xpub safe?
For receiving, yes: an xpub derives addresses but cannot sign. Sharing it trades a little privacy, the derived chain is visible, for a lot of operational safety.
Do chains other than Bitcoin have xpubs?
The hierarchical derivation pattern (BIP-32 style) runs across the Bitcoin family; account-model chains get the same effect differently, fresh deposit addresses per account, no key exposure.
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