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What a keystore JSON is and what can be read from it safely

If you have a file with a very long name starting with UTC, or any text file that inside has braces and words like «crypto» and «cipher», you have a keystore. It is a deliberately transparent format: almost all of it can be read without compromising anything, and that is very useful.

September 26, 2026 · 4-minute read

The idea, in one sentence

A keystore is your private key encrypted with your password, stored alongside the instructions for how it was encrypted. Those instructions are public by design: they are there so any wallet can open it given the right password.

What can be looked at safely

  • The address, which usually appears inside. It is public information.
  • The protection method: usually a word such as scrypt or pbkdf2.
  • The parameters: a few numbers indicating how expensive each attempt is.
  • The format version.

All of that can be shared with someone assessing your case with no danger at all, because none of it opens anything. It is, in fact, exactly what is needed to tell you whether your case is workable: those parameters decide how many passwords can be tried per second.

What is never shown

The long string of letters and numbers under the ciphertext label is not shared. That is your key inside the safe. On its own it is useless without your password, but there is no legitimate reason for it to leave your computer, and anyone asking for it in a first contact isn’t assessing your case: they are building theirs.
A practical rule for any format: parameters are shared, encrypted content is not. With the parameters I can tell you whether there is a case; with the content I learn nothing more and you take an unnecessary risk. The full table of what can and can’t be shared is in what data is safe to share.

How to look at it without damaging it

  1. Make a copy of the file and work on the copy.
  2. Open it with a simple text editor, read-only if you can.
  3. Look at the words and numbers; change nothing.
  4. Close it without saving. Never save a keystore from an editor.

If what you want is to know what those parameters mean for your specific case, it is explained in the parameters of your file that decide viability.

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