package org.bouncycastle.bcpg;

/**
 * base interface for a PGP key
 */
public interface BCPGKey {

	/**
	 * Return the base format for this key - in the case of the symmetric keys it will generally
	 * be raw indicating that the key is just a straight byte representation, for an asymmetric
	 * key the format will be PGP, indicating the key is a string of MPIs encoded in PGP format.
	 * 
	 * @return "RAW" or "PGP"
	 */
	public String getFormat();
	
	/**
	 * return a string of bytes giving the encoded format of the key, as described by it's format.
	 * 
	 * @return byte[]
	 */
	public byte[] getEncoded();
	
}
