(
Elliptic
Curve
Digital
Signature
Algorithm) A digital signature that is derived using elliptic curve cryptography. A variation of the DSA standard, ECDSA is the cryptographic method used to generate a public key from a private key as well as the digital signature in spendable Bitcoin records known as a "unspent transaction outputs" (UTXOs).
The public key is used to verify that the message, be it a Bitcoin transaction or any other data, was created by the holder of the private key. See
elliptic curve cryptography and
digital signature.