# Package net.corda.core.crypto

- Class Summary
  Class | Description
  --- | ---
  AbstractParty | An `class AbstractParty` contains the common elements of `class Party` and `class AnonymousParty`, specifically the owning key of the party. In most cases `class Party` or `class AnonymousParty` should be used, depending on use-case.
  AnonymousParty | The `class AnonymousParty` class contains enough information to uniquely identify a `class Party` while excluding private information such as name. It is intended to represent a party on the distributed ledger.
  CertificateStream |
  CompositeKey | A tree data structure that enables the representation of composite public keys.
  CompositeKeyKt |
  CryptoUtilities |
  DigitalSignature | A wrapper around a digital signature. The covering field is a generic tag usable by whatever is interpreting the signature. It isn't used currently, but experience from Bitcoin suggests such a feature is useful, especially when building partially signed transactions.
  DummyPublicKey |
  EncodingUtilsKt |
  MerkleTree | Creation and verification of a Merkle Tree for a Wire Transaction.
  NullPublicKey |
  NullSignature | A signature with a key and value of zero. Useful when you want a signature object that you know won't ever be used.
  PartialMerkleTree | Building and verification of Partial Merkle Tree. Partial Merkle Tree is a minimal tree needed to check that a given set of leaves belongs to a full Merkle Tree.
  Party | The `class Party` class represents an entity on the network, which is typically identified by a legal name and public key that it can sign transactions under. As parties may use multiple keys for signing and, for example, have offline backup keys, the "public key" of a party is represented by a composite construct – a `class CompositeKey`, which combines multiple cryptographic public key primitives into a tree structure.
  SecureHash | Container for a cryptographically secure hash value. Provides utilities for generating a cryptographic hash using different algorithms (currently only SHA-256 supported).
  SecureHashKt |
  SignedData<T> | A serialized piece of data and its signature. Enforces signature validity in order to deserialize the data contained within.
  X509Utilities |
  X509UtilitiesKt |

- Exception Summary
  Exception | Description
  --- | ---
  MerkleTreeException |