Number: SLIP-0132
Title: Registered HD version bytes for BIP-0032
Type: Standard
Status: Draft
Authors: Clark Moody <clark@clarkmoody.com>
Created: 2018-02-08
BIP-0032 defines the derivation scheme for heirarchical deterministic wallets, which encode their public and private keys in an extended serialization format known as xpub. The xpub prefix is an artifact of Base58 encoding the four version bytes of the serialization format.
The BIP repository defines public and private key version bytes for Bitcoin's mainnet and testnet. However, other cryptocurrencies use different version bytes for encoding HD seeds, and the BIP repository is focused on Bitcoin. Thus, we propose this SLIP act as a registry for all coin HD version bytes.
Since BIP-0032 does not specify the address format for a given derivation path, wallet developers have proposed altering the version bytes to achieve this. With the activation of SegWit on Bitcoin, the number of ways of encoding an address public key has increased. While BIP-0049 proposes a method for encoding P2WPKH-nested-in-P2SH addresses, it fails to change the HD seed version bytes (retains xpub prefix), leading to unsustainable user confusion. Either the user must know that the xpub uses BIP-0049 derivation, or the consumer of the xpub must scan both address spaces (P2PKH and P2WPKH-in-P2SH).
BIP-0084 proposes a native-SegWit derivation scheme, encoding P2WPKH addresses in Bech32. However, the extended serialization format is presented with a zpub prefix but no version bytes. This is an issue since multiple values of the version bytes may encode to the same prefix.
A final important motiviation for establishing a clearinghouse of HD version bytes is the fact that the extended serialization format does not encode the coin type. The SLIP-0032 proposal attempts a remedy by including the full BIP-0032 derivation path within the serialized key. Along with a human-readable prefix of xpub and Bech32 encoding, SLIP-0032 should greatly improve the wallet ecosystem. Until wallets begin implementation of SLIP-0032, however, this registry aims to alleviate the confusion.
These are the registered HD version bytes for extended serialization of public and private keys.
| Coin | Public Key | Private Key | Address Encoding | BIP 32 Path |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin | 0x0488b21e - xpub |
0x0488ade4 - xprv |
P2PKH or P2SH | m/44'/0' |
| Bitcoin | 0x049d7cb2 - ypub |
0x049d7878 - yprv |
P2WPKH in P2SH | m/49'/0' |
| Bitcoin | 0x04b24746 - zpub |
0x04b2430c - zprv |
P2WPKH | m/84'/0' |
| Bitcoin | 0x0295b43f - Ypub |
0x0295b005 - Yprv |
P2WSH in P2SH | - |
| Bitcoin | 0x02aa7ed3 - Zpub |
0x02aa7a99 - Zprv |
P2WSH | - |
| Bitcoin Testnet | 0x043587cf - tpub |
0x04358394 - tprv |
P2PKH or P2SH | m/44'/1' |
| Bitcoin Testnet | 0x044a5262 - upub |
0x044a4e28 - uprv |
P2WPKH in P2SH | m/49'/1' |
| Bitcoin Testnet | 0x024289ef - Upub |
0x024285b5 - Uprv |
P2WSH in P2SH | - |
| Bitcoin Testnet | 0x045f1cf6 - vpub |
0x045f18bc - vprv |
P2WPKH | m/84'/1' |
| Bitcoin Testnet | 0x02575483 - Vpub |
0x02575048 - Vprv |
P2WSH | - |
| Litecoin | 0x019da462 - Ltub |
0x019d9cfe - Ltpv |
P2PKH or P2SH | m/44'/2' |
| Litecoin | 0x01b26ef6 - Mtub |
0x01b26792 - Mtpv |
P2WPKH in P2SH | m/49'/1' |
| Litecoin Testnet | 0x0436f6e1 - ttub |
0x0436ef7d - ttpv |
P2PKH or P2SH | m/44'/1' |
| Vertcoin | 0x0488b21e - vtcp |
0x0488ade4 - vtcv |
P2PKH or P2SH | m/44'/28' |
Mnemonic: abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon abandon about
m/44'/0'/0'
xprv9xpXFhFpqdQK3TmytPBqXtGSwS3DLjojFhTGht8gwAAii8py5X6pxeBnQ6ehJiyJ6nDjWGJfZ95WxByFXVkDxHXrqu53WCRGypk2ttuqncb
xpub6BosfCnifzxcFwrSzQiqu2DBVTshkCXacvNsWGYJVVhhawA7d4R5WSWGFNbi8Aw6ZRc1brxMyWMzG3DSSSSoekkudhUd9yLb6qx39T9nMdj
m/44'/0'/0'/0/0 address:
1LqBGSKuX5yYUonjxT5qGfpUsXKYYWeabA
m/49'/0'/0'
yprvAHwhK6RbpuS3dgCYHM5jc2ZvEKd7Bi61u9FVhYMpgMSuZS613T1xxQeKTffhrHY79hZ5PsskBjcc6C2V7DrnsMsNaGDaWev3GLRQRgV7hxF
ypub6Ww3ibxVfGzLrAH1PNcjyAWenMTbbAosGNB6VvmSEgytSER9azLDWCxoJwW7Ke7icmizBMXrzBx9979FfaHxHcrArf3zbeJJJUZPf663zsP
m/49'/0'/0'/0/0 address:
37VucYSaXLCAsxYyAPfbSi9eh4iEcbShgf
m/84'/0'/0'
zprvAdG4iTXWBoARxkkzNpNh8r6Qag3irQB8PzEMkAFeTRXxHpbF9z4QgEvBRmfvqWvGp42t42nvgGpNgYSJA9iefm1yYNZKEm7z6qUWCroSQnE
zpub6rFR7y4Q2AijBEqTUquhVz398htDFrtymD9xYYfG1m4wAcvPhXNfE3EfH1r1ADqtfSdVCToUG868RvUUkgDKf31mGDtKsAYz2oz2AGutZYs
m/84'/0'/0'/0/0 address:
bc1qcr8te4kr609gcawutmrza0j4xv80jy8z306fyu