# Private key

A private key is the cryptographic secret that authorizes transactions on a blockchain. Anyone who knows the private key can sign transactions and move the associated assets, irreversibly. Protecting private keys, and governing who may use them, is therefore the core of digital asset custody.

## Why private keys change the risk model for banks

In traditional finance a fraudulent transfer can often be reversed; on a public blockchain a signed transaction is final. That concentrates operational risk in key generation, storage, use, backup, and destruction, the full key lifecycle.

In Taurus-PROTECT, keys are generated and used inside FIPS-certified hardware security modules under the bank's exclusive control, with quorum approvals governing every signature.

FAQ:

- Can a lost private key be recovered? Only if a backup exists. Banking-grade custody mandates bank-controlled, encrypted, and audited key backups, increasingly quantum-safe, so that hardware failure never means asset loss.

Related: https://www.taurushq.com/glossary/private-key-sovereignty/ https://www.taurushq.com/glossary/key-backup-and-recovery/ https://www.taurushq.com/protect/

Learn more: https://www.taurushq.com/glossary/private-key/