Address Validation

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Validation Resources

ergo-simple-addresses contains few zero-dependencies Java-friendly utils for working with addresses. The Integration Guide for Exchanges may also be relevant. There is also a simple method in Fleet.

Address Length Limits

  • P2S has no limit since it is the serialized script.
  • P2SH is 192 bits since it is the "first 192 bits of the Blake2b256 hash of serialized script bytes."
  • P2PK length is fixed. You can use the linked class to validate an address (it gives a runtime exception when created from an invalid string).

Script Visibility

In P2S, everyone can see the script; in P2SH, the script will be known when it will be spent.

Prefix Bytes

P2SH has 0x12 at the beginning, and P2S has 0x13 on testnet and 0x02 and 0x03 on mainnet accordingly (note that in hex, you can see that, but in base58, it can change to anything).

Example: Base58 to Hex

As you can see

Base58 Address:

88dhgzEuTXaRxf1rbqBRZ6Zbw9iigdB4PCdjyFKLrk22gnmjKcxZBe53vqJVetRa4tTNF9oowQWPp2c6

equals

Hex representation:

03 10 02 04 a0 0b 08 cd 02 a1 f5 67 16 cb 8d f4 fe b9 37 14 37 90 4b 91 25 b8 2d b9 39 23 8c d7 d9 48 78 6d b3 3d e3 13 9f ea 02 d1 92 a3 9a 8c c7 a7 01 73 00 73 01 8c 23 55 af

Note the 03 prefix at the beginning, which indicates this is a P2S address on mainnet.