106 Understanding Public Key Encryption: A Fundamental Overview

Asymmetric Key Cryptography generates 2 keys: a private one and a public one. Either key can be used to encrypt the plaintext such that the other key can decrypt it, but the message being encrypted must be smaller than the encryption key space and the key space will be in the hundreds to thousands of bits. Therefore, in practice, asymmetric key cryptography is used for 3 things.