Systems and methods for public ledger authentication includes receiving a first previous authentication public ledger address and a first current authentication public ledger address from a user. A verified static user key is identified in a public ledger using the first previous authentication public ledger address. A second current authentication public ledger address is then provided to the user for use in the current authentication attempt. Authentication attempt information is determined that includes a number of authentication attempts by the user, and used in a hash operation with the verified static user key to generate a first user authentication key. A second user authentication key is retrieved from the public ledger that was sent from the first current authentication public ledger address to the second current authentication public ledger address in a transaction, and the user is authenticated if the second user authentication key matches the first user authentication key.