Skip to main content

Base Addresses

Base addresses contain both a payment credential and a staking credential. This is the standard address format on Cardano.

Structure​

Base Address = Payment Credential + Staking Credential

Payment Credential: Controls who can spend UTXOs at this address Staking Credential: Controls delegation and receives staking rewards

Both credentials are typically derived from the same wallet, but can come from different sources (see Franken Addresses).

Construction​

Create base addresses by instantiating the BaseAddress class:

import { AddressEras, BaseAddress, KeyHash, ScriptHash } from "@evolution-sdk/evolution";

const address = new BaseAddress.BaseAddress({
  networkId: 1, // mainnet
  paymentCredential: new KeyHash.KeyHash({
    hash: new Uint8Array(28)
  }),
  stakeCredential: new KeyHash.KeyHash({
    hash: new Uint8Array(28)
  })
});

const bech32 = AddressEras.toBech32(address);
console.log(bech32); // "addr1..."

Parsing Addresses​

Parse a Bech32 address string into a BaseAddress instance:

import { AddressEras, BaseAddress } from "@evolution-sdk/evolution";

const bech32 = "addr1qx2kd28nq8ac5prwg32hhvudlwggpgfp8utlyqxu6wqgz62f79qsdmm5dsknt9ecr5w468r9ey0fxwkdrwh08ly3tu9sy0f4qd";

const address = AddressEras.fromBech32(bech32) as BaseAddress.BaseAddress;

console.log("Network ID:", address.networkId);
console.log("Payment:", address.paymentCredential);
console.log("Stake:", address.stakeCredential);

Script-Based Addresses​

Base addresses can use script hashes for payment and/or staking credentials:

import { AddressEras, BaseAddress, ScriptHash } from "@evolution-sdk/evolution";

const scriptAddress = new BaseAddress.BaseAddress({
  networkId: 1,
  paymentCredential: new ScriptHash.ScriptHash({
    hash: new Uint8Array(28)
  }),
  stakeCredential: new ScriptHash.ScriptHash({
    hash: new Uint8Array(28)
  })
});

const bech32 = AddressEras.toBech32(scriptAddress);
console.log("Script-based address:", bech32);

Address Components​

Payment Credential​

  • Purpose: Spending authorization
  • Type: Key hash (28 bytes) or script hash (28 bytes)
  • Usage: Required to sign spending transactions

Staking Credential​

  • Purpose: Delegation and rewards
  • Type: Key hash (28 bytes) or script hash (28 bytes)
  • Usage: Required to delegate stake or withdraw rewards

Format Details​

Bech32 Prefix: addr (mainnet) or addr_test (testnet) Size: 57 bytes on-chain