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Version: IOTA

Address/Key Space

BIP32 - Tree Structure​

The BIP32 standard describes an approach to Hierarchical Deterministic Wallets. The standard was improved by BIP44.

This standard defines a tree structure as a base for address and key space generation which is represented by a derivation path:

m / purpose / coin_type / account / change / address_index

  • m: A master node (seed).

  • purpose: A constant which is {44}.

  • coin_type: A constant set for each crypto currency. IOTA = 4218, for instance.

  • account: Account index. Zero-based increasing int. This level splits the address/key space into independent branches (ex. user identities) which each has own set of addresses/keys.

  • change: Change index which is {0, 1}, also known as wallet chain.

    There are two independent chains of addresses or keys. 0 is reserved for public addresses (to receive coins) and 1 is reserved for internal addresses (also known as change) to which transaction change is returned. IOTA allows address reuse, and so it is, technically speaking, valid to return transaction change to the same originating address. It is up to developers whether to leverage it or not. The iota.rs library and its sibling wallet.rs help with either scenario.

  • address_index: Address index. Zero-based increasing int that indicates an address index.

As outlined, there is quite a large address/key space that is secured by a single unique seed.

And there are few additional interesting notes:

  • Each level defines a completely different subtree (subspace) of addresses/keys, and those are never mixed up.
  • The hierarchy is ready to "absorb" addresses/keys for many coins at the same time (coin_type), and all those coins are secured by the same seed. This means any BIP32/44-compliant wallet is potentially able to manage any \ BIP32/44-compliant coin(s).
  • There may be also other purposes in the future. However, consider a single purpose for now. The constant 44 stands for BIP44.
  • The standard was agreed upon by different crypto communities, although not all derivation path components are always in active use. For example, account is not always actively leveraged across the crypto space (if this is the case then account=0 is usually used).
  • Using different accounts may be useful to split addresses/keys into some independent spaces, and it is up to developers to implement. _Using different accounts may have a negative impact on a performance while you are on the account discovery phase. If you are planning on using many multiple accounts then you may be interested in our stateful library wallet.rs that incorporates all business logic needed to efficiently manage independent accounts. Our exchange guide provides some useful tips on how different accounts may be leveraged.

address_generation

In case of IOTA, the derivation path of address/key space is [seed]/44/4218/{int}/{0,1}/{int}. The levels purpose and coin_type are given, the rest levels are up to developers to integrate.