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Pointer Addresses

info

Legacy Format: Pointer addresses are rarely used in practice. This documentation exists for parsing historical transactions and understanding the complete address specification.

Pointer addresses contain a payment credential plus a pointer to an on-chain stake registration certificate. They reference stake information indirectly via blockchain coordinates instead of embedding a stake credential.

Historical Context​

Pointer addresses were part of the original Shelley address design, intended to optimize for size by referencing stake information rather than embedding it.

Original Goal: Save 28 bytes per address by using a pointer instead of a full stake credential.

Reality: Minimal savings, added complexity. On-chain stake registrations must be permanent and indexed. Wallet software needs additional logic to resolve pointers.

Outcome: The ecosystem converged on base addresses as the standard format.

Structure​

Pointer Address = Payment Credential + Pointer (slot, txIndex, certIndex)

Payment Credential: Controls who can spend UTXOs Pointer: References stake registration cert location on-chain

Comparison with Base Addresses​

FeaturePointerBase
Payment credentialYesYes
Stake credentialVia pointerDirect embed
SizeVariableFixed 57 bytes
ComplexityHighLow
AdoptionRareUniversal
RecommendedNoYes

Parsing Pointer Addresses (Legacy)​

Address does not support pointer addresses as they are deprecated. Use AddressEras for historical parsing.

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

const address = AddressEras.fromBech32("addr_test1gz2n8fvzgmyhnqlpnv2340v09943nr7pz5af2rwqrra8ncsm0tdz8");

if (address._tag === "PointerAddress") {
  console.log("Payment credential:", address.paymentCredential);
  console.log("Pointer:", address.pointer);
}

Migration to Base Address​

If you have funds at a pointer address, you can send them to a base address using your wallet. Create a transaction that spends from the pointer address UTXOs and sends to your base address. This requires the appropriate signing keys for the payment credential referenced in the pointer address.

Advanced: Understanding Pointer Structure​

The pointer identifies where the stake registration certificate lives on-chain:

  • slot: Block slot number containing the registration
  • txIndex: Transaction position within that block
  • certIndex: Certificate position within that transaction

This triplet uniquely identifies the stake registration certificate.

Stake Registration Requirement​

For a pointer address to work:

  1. A stake registration certificate must exist on-chain at the pointer location
  2. That certificate must register a stake credential
  3. The pointer (slot, txIndex, certIndex) must be valid and resolvable

If any of these fail, the address is invalid.

Advanced: Manual Construction​

This example shows the structure for completeness. Do not use in production:

import { KeyHash, Pointer, PointerAddress } from "@evolution-sdk/evolution";

const paymentCred = new KeyHash.KeyHash({
  hash: new Uint8Array(28).fill(0)
});

const pointer = new Pointer.Pointer({
  slot: 12345,
  txIndex: 2,
  certIndex: 0
});

const pointerAddr = new PointerAddress.PointerAddress({
  networkId: 0,
  paymentCredential: paymentCred,
  pointer: pointer
});

console.log("Pointer address (deprecated):", pointerAddr);

Format Details​

Bech32 Prefix: addr (mainnet) or addr_test (testnet) Length: Variable (34-48 bytes depending on pointer values) Header Bits: 0100xxxx (key hash) or 0101xxxx (script hash)