GlossaryIntermediate
Watch-Only Wallet
A wallet that can view balances and activity for an address without holding its private key.
A watch-only wallet can display balances and transaction history for a given address using only its public key or address, without ever having access to the corresponding private key.
This lets someone monitor an address's activity without any ability to actually move its funds — useful for tracking cold-storage holdings without exposing the private key to an internet-connected device.
Examples
- A watch-only wallet lets you monitor a hardware wallet's balance from your phone without exposing its private key.
- Having a watch-only wallet does not grant the ability to spend the address's funds.