Bitcoin: Address Format, Inference Path, or BIP Usage

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Understanding Derivative Paths and BIP in Bitcoin

While studying Bitcoin, I came across a problem I wanted to ask: How can I determine which derivative path a specific address 1xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx was created with?

To answer this question, let’s dive into the world of Bitcoin’s private key management system, specifically its derivative paths.

What are derivative paths?

In Bitcoin, each user has multiple wallets that use different derivation paths to manage their private keys. A derivative path is a string of characters that represents how the private key should be derived from the seed key. The seed key is a random number that is used to create the first derivative of the private key.

What does the 1xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx address represent?

A 1xxxxxxxxxxxx address, such as 1xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, represents a wallet on the Bitcoin network that uses a specific derivation path. “1” means it is a private key and xxxxxxxxx means the derived path.

How ​​to determine the derived path of address 1xxxxxxxxxxxxx?

To determine from which derived path a particular address 1xxxxxxxxxxxxx was created, you need to understand the Bitcoin protocol. Here’s how:

• Find the hash: First, find the hash of the seed key used to create the private key. You can use tools like bc (Bitcoin command line tool) or gethash to generate and verify hashes.

• Extract the derived path

  

  : Use the Bitcoin command line tool deriveaddress with the -p option, followed by the seed hash obtained in step 1. This will display the derived path of the private key corresponding to address 1xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

Here’s an example:

`hit

gethash | bitcoin-derived --privatekey -p 2

`

Assumingseed_hashis the hash of the seed used to create the private key. The output will be a string representing the output path, such asm/0’/0’/1’/0.

• Verify Output Path

  : Verify that the resulting output path matches the expected one.

Request and BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal)

Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs) provide additional guidance on private key management, including derivation paths. The BIP-0016 standard defines a specific derivation pathm/0’/0’/1’` to generate a public key from a private key.

By understanding how to calculate the derived path for the address 1xxxxxxxxxxx using Bitcoin tools and protocols, you can verify that your wallet or transaction is indeed using the correct derived path.

Hope this explanation helps! Let me know if you have any further questions or need further clarification.

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