Algorand Namespace - Addresses

CAIP-10

For context, see the CAIP-10 specification.

Rationale

Algorand addresses are canonically represented as 58-character long strings, written in all-upper-case. Account addresses are independent of the network in which they are used, and should be prefixed by the chainID of mainnet when stored in CAIP-10 format unless another chainID is significant in context (i.e. in a chainID-specific transaction). Addresses are derived from a base32-encoding of a 32-byte key followed by a 4-byte checksum. The base32 padding (=) is dropped.

Algorand accounts, smart contracts, and logic signatures all share the same address format. They differ in how the 32-byte key is computed:

2. Smart Contracts: The 32-byte key is the SHA512/256 hash of the byte-string 0x6170704944 (hexadecimal representation of the ASCII string appID) concatenated with the smart contract’s ID as 64-bit big-endian integer.
3. Logic Signatures: The 32-byte key is the SHA512/256 hash of the byte-string 0x50726F6772616D (hexadecimal representation of the ASCII string Program) concatenated with the smart signature’s compiled byte-code.

The checksum is computed as the four last bytes in the SHA512/256 hash of the 32-byte key.

A raw address, consisting of the 32-byte key plus 4-byte checksum, contains (32+4)*8 = 288 bits of information. The base32-encoding of this address contains 58 characters, each encoding 5 bits of information, hence 58 * 5 = 290 bits in total. This means the last two bits of the base32-encoding are redundant and Algorand enforces that they be zero. This means a valid Algorand address must end in one of the following characters: [A, E, I, M, Q, U, Y, 4].

Syntax

Algorand addresses match the following regular expression:

[A-Z2-7]{57}[AEIMQUY4]

Test Cases

Account address:

# Public key (in HEX format)
e12d647d2dade456f311c03a3637bba7db43e05dc4985f7ca0b8db158ec3458c

# Algorand MainNet
algorand:wGHE2Pwdvd7S12BL5FaOP20EGYesN73k:4EWWI7JNVXSFN4YRYA5DMN53U7NUHYC5YSMF67FAXDNRLDWDIWGM5DQGBA

# Algorand TestNet
algorand:SGO1GKSzyE7IEPItTxCByw9x8FmnrCDe:4EWWI7JNVXSFN4YRYA5DMN53U7NUHYC5YSMF67FAXDNRLDWDIWGM5DQGBA

# Algorand BetaNet
algorand:mFgazF-2uRS1tMiL9dsj01hJGySEmPN2:4EWWI7JNVXSFN4YRYA5DMN53U7NUHYC5YSMF67FAXDNRLDWDIWGM5DQGBA

Smart contract address:

# App ID
1002541853

# Algorand MainNet
algorand:wGHE2Pwdvd7S12BL5FaOP20EGYesN73k:XSKED5VKZZCSYNDWXZJI65JM2HP7HZFJWCOBIMOONKHTK5UVKENBNVDEYM

# Algorand TestNet
algorand:SGO1GKSzyE7IEPItTxCByw9x8FmnrCDe:XSKED5VKZZCSYNDWXZJI65JM2HP7HZFJWCOBIMOONKHTK5UVKENBNVDEYM

# Algorand BetaNet
algorand:mFgazF-2uRS1tMiL9dsj01hJGySEmPN2:XSKED5VKZZCSYNDWXZJI65JM2HP7HZFJWCOBIMOONKHTK5UVKENBNVDEYM

Logic signature address:

# Logic signature (byte-code in HEX):
0120010022

# Algorand MainNet
algorand:wGHE2Pwdvd7S12BL5FaOP20EGYesN73k:KI4DJG2OOFJGUERJGSWCYGFZWDNEU2KWTU56VRJHITP62PLJ5VYMBFDBFE

# Algorand TestNet
algorand:SGO1GKSzyE7IEPItTxCByw9x8FmnrCDe:KI4DJG2OOFJGUERJGSWCYGFZWDNEU2KWTU56VRJHITP62PLJ5VYMBFDBFE

# Algorand BetaNet
algorand:mFgazF-2uRS1tMiL9dsj01hJGySEmPN2:KI4DJG2OOFJGUERJGSWCYGFZWDNEU2KWTU56VRJHITP62PLJ5VYMBFDBFE

References

• Algorand Developer Documentation: Homepage for developer documentation

Copyright

Copyright and related rights waived via CC0.

Citation

Please cite this document as:

Kevin Wellenzohn, "namespaces/algorand-caip10: Algorand Namespace - Addresses [DRAFT]," Chain Agnostic Namespaces, algorand-caip10, June 2023 / June 2023. [Online serial]. Available: https://github.com/ChainAgnostic/namespaces/algorand-caip10.md