Privacy Glossary
Encryption Key
The secret that makes your messages unreadable to others
In Short
A piece of data used by encryption algorithms to transform plaintext into ciphertext. Without the key, encrypted data is computationally impossible to read.
Explained
Encryption keys are the secret component that makes encryption work. A 256-bit key has 2^256 possible values - trying all of them would take longer than the age of the universe with all computers ever built working together.
How zkChat Implements This
zkChat generates a 256-bit random key for each room using the Web Crypto API. This key is embedded in the URL fragment (after the #) which browsers never send to servers. Only people with the full link can decrypt messages.
Related Concepts
See It In Action
Experience encryption key firsthand with zkChat.
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