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I'm learning about public key cryptography (asymmetric key cryptography), but from what I've gathered, we basically use public key crypto to just move directly onto private key cryptography (symmetric key cryptography).

Why not just always use asymmetric? (Note: I'm a software developer but not a cryptography expert. I'm just learning and find it fascinating. Thank you)

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    $\begingroup$ Does this answer your question? Why is asymmetric cryptography bad for huge data? also Why is hybrid encryption more effective than other encryption scheme? $\endgroup$
    – kelalaka
    Commented Jan 22, 2022 at 19:09
  • $\begingroup$ Asymmetric encryption is slow, so it's common to use asymmetric encryption to pass a symmetric encryption key to the other party and use something fast like AES to transfer data securely. $\endgroup$
    – Evan Su
    Commented Jan 22, 2022 at 19:13
  • $\begingroup$ Asymmetric algorithms require longer keys (but this problem is partially eliminated by ECC), they operate slower than symmetric ones, they potentially produce bigger ciphertexts (if we talk about ciphers) $\endgroup$
    – Georgii Firsov
    Commented Jan 22, 2022 at 19:15
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    $\begingroup$ I don't like the term "private key cryptography" myself. If you'd use symmetric cryptography and you have more then one party, then the key cannot be kept private (to one party), but it does need to remain secret. So "secret key cryptography" seems more appropriate. $\endgroup$
    – Maarten Bodewes ♦
    Commented Jan 22, 2022 at 19:54

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