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Account Addresses

Account Addresses

Overview​

ZetaChain is built with Cosmos SDK and uses the Ethermint module to provide EVM compatibility. Being both a Cosmos and an EVM chain means that ZetaChain supports two types of addresses: bech32 Cosmos addresses and hex EVM addresses.

Bech32 addresses are known for their human-readable format, which typically starts with a prefix related to the specific blockchain. These addresses are designed to reduce the risk of errors in transcription and input, thanks to their built-in error detection capabilities. ZetaChain uses the zeta prefix for its bech32 addresses.

EVM addresses, on the other hand, are represented as 20-byte hexadecimal strings and are used to identify accounts on the Ethereum Virtual Machine.

A single account can be represented by both a bech32 address and an EVM address if they are derived from the same public key.

For example, let's consider the following bech32 address:

zeta19nfaqu9wr0fktyyampva98ec025kjy0phww5um

You can query the balance of the account associated with this address using the HTTP API:

https://zetachain-athens.blockpi.network/lcd/v1/public/cosmos/bank/v1beta1/balances/zeta19nfaqu9wr0fktyyampva98ec025kjy0phww5um

The equivalent EVM address for the same account is:

0x2cD3D070aE1BD365909dD859d29F387AA96911e1

You can also query the balance of the account associated with this address using the HTTP API:

https://zetachain-athens.blockpi.network/lcd/v1/public/ethermint/evm/v1/balances/0x2cD3D070aE1BD365909dD859d29F387AA96911e1

As you can see, both queries return the same balance.

This means, for example, that you can import the same mnemonic into a Cosmos wallet and an EVM wallet and access the same account. Some wallets, like Keplr display both bech32 and hex addresses.

tip

You don't need to transfer your tokens between a bech32 address and an hex address that represent the same account.

Account Type​

If you're having issues interacting from the same account from Cosmos and EVM wallets, check out the account type using the chain's API:

https://zetachain-athens.blockpi.network/lcd/v1/public/cosmos/auth/v1beta1/accounts/zeta19nfaqu9wr0fktyyampva98ec025kjy0phww5um

For Cosmos and EVM compatiblity the account @type should be /ethermint.crypto.v1.ethsecp256k1.PubKey.

Account Address Converter​

To convert between bech32 and EVM addresses, you can use the following tool:

Converted address:

Converting between bech32 and EVM addresses is an off-chain operation and can be implemented in any programming language, for example, in TypeScript. On the CLI you can also use zetacored debug addr command.