Vechain Namespace

CAIP-2

For context, see the [CAIP-2][] specification.

Abstract

In CAIP-2 a general blockchain identification scheme is defined. This is the implementation of CAIP-2 for VechainThor network.

Vechain Namespace

The namespace “vechain” refers to the wider Vechain ecosystem.

Rationale

Vechain consists of 2 networks: a production network and a testing network. Private networks can also be created to aid in local development. Each network has a unique genesis ID that can be used to identify it.

An identifier for a VechainThor chain consists of the namespace prefix “vechain:” followed by a truncated form of the chain’s genesis ID.

Syntax

Due to length and character limitations of CAIP-2 reference identifiers (references must adhere to [-_a-zA-Z0-9]{1,32}), the commonly referenced standard genesis ID of a vechain cannot be used directly as a reference.

Instead, one change must be made:

1. Only the last 32 characters of the genesis ID will be used

Resolution Method

To resolve the blockchain reference for VechainThor chain, a GET request can be made to an VechainThor node on the path blocks/0. This will return a JSON object with the the key id, whose value is the hex encoded ID of the current chain.

For example:

// Request
curl "https://mainnet.vechain.org/blocks/0"

// Response (formatted)
{
  "number": 0,
  "id": "0x00000000851caf3cfdb6e899cf5958bfb1ac3413d346d43539627e6be7ec1b4a",
  "size": 170,
  "parentID": "0xffffffff53616c757465202620526573706563742c20457468657265756d2100"
}

const genesisId = "0x00000000851caf3cfdb6e899cf5958bfb1ac3413d346d43539627e6be7ec1b4a";
//get the last 32 characters of the genesis ID
const truncatedId = genesisId.slice(-32);
const identifier = "vechain:" + truncatedId;

console.log(identifier); // prints "vechain:b1ac3413d346d43539627e6be7ec1b4a"

Test Cases

# VechainThor MainNet has the genesis ID 0x00000000851caf3cfdb6e899cf5958bfb1ac3413d346d43539627e6be7ec1b4a
vechain:b1ac3413d346d43539627e6be7ec1b4a

# VechainThor TestNet has the genesis ID 0x000000000b2bce3c70bc649a02749e8687721b09ed2e15997f466536b20bb127
vechain:87721b09ed2e15997f466536b20bb127

References

• VechainThor REST API
• CAIP-2

Rights

Copyright and related rights waived via CC0.

Citation

Please cite this document as:

Darren Kelly, "namespaces/vechain-caip2: Vechain Namespace [DRAFT]," Chain Agnostic Namespaces, vechain-caip2, July 2023 / July 2023. [Online serial]. Available: https://github.com/ChainAgnostic/namespaces/vechain-caip2.md