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The Cosmos SDK uses the Bech32 address format for all user-facing addresses. Bech32 encoding provides robust integrity checks through checksums and includes a human-readable prefix (HRP) that provides contextual information about the address type.

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Address Types

The SDK defines three distinct address types, each with its own Bech32 prefix:
Address TypeBech32 PrefixExamplePurpose
Account Addresscosmoscosmos1r5v5sr...User accounts, balances, transactions
Validator Operator Addresscosmosvalopercosmosvaloper1r5v5sr...Validator operator identity, staking operations
Consensus Addresscosmosvalconscosmosvalcons1r5v5sr...Validator consensus participation, block signing
Each address type also has a corresponding public key prefix:
  • Account public keys: cosmospub
  • Validator public keys: cosmosvaloperpub
  • Consensus public keys: cosmosvalconspub

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Supported Key Schemes

The Cosmos SDK supports three key schemes. The choice of scheme affects address length and whether it can be used for transactions or consensus:
Address length in bytesPublic key length in bytesUsed for transaction authenticationUsed for consensus (CometBFT)
secp256k12033yesno
secp256r13233yesno
tm-ed25519— not used —32noyes
secp256k1 is the default for user accounts. secp256r1 is supported as an alternative and produces longer addresses (32 bytes). tm-ed25519 is used exclusively for validator consensus keys and does not produce a user-facing address.

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Address Derivation

Addresses are derived from public keys through cryptographic hashing. The process differs based on the key algorithm:

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Secp256k1 Keys (Account Addresses)

Account addresses use Bitcoin-style address derivation: 
1. Public Key: 33 bytes (compressed secp256k1 public key)
2. SHA-256 hash of public key: 32 bytes
3. RIPEMD-160 hash of result: 20 bytes (final address)
Implementation: crypto/keys/secp256k1/secp256k1.go 
func (pubKey *PubKey) Address() crypto.Address {
    sha := sha256.Sum256(pubKey.Key)           // Step 1: SHA-256
    hasherRIPEMD160 := ripemd160.New()
    hasherRIPEMD160.Write(sha[:])
    return hasherRIPEMD160.Sum(nil)            // Step 2: RIPEMD-160 = 20 bytes
}

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Ed25519 Keys (Consensus Addresses)

Consensus addresses use truncated SHA-256: 
1. Public Key: 32 bytes (Ed25519 public key)
2. SHA-256 hash, truncated to first 20 bytes
Implementation: crypto/keys/ed25519/ed25519.go 
func (pubKey *PubKey) Address() crypto.Address {
    return crypto.Address(tmhash.SumTruncated(pubKey.Key))  // SHA-256-20
}

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Bech32 Encoding Process

Once address bytes are derived, they’re converted to Bech32 format: Step 1: Convert from 8-bit to 5-bit encoding 
// Address bytes (20 bytes = 160 bits)
addressBytes := []byte{0x12, 0x34, ..., 0xab}  // 20 bytes

// Convert to 5-bit groups for Bech32
converted, _ := bech32.ConvertBits(addressBytes, 8, 5, true)
Step 2: Encode with Human-Readable Prefix 
// Combine HRP with converted bytes
bech32Address, _ := bech32.Encode("cosmos", converted)
// Result: "cosmos1r5v5srda7xfth3uckstjst6k05kmeyzptewwdk"
Implementation: types/bech32/bech32.go

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Configuring Bech32 prefixes

Every Cosmos SDK application sets its Bech32 prefixes and SLIP-44 coin type once at startup via sdk.GetConfig(), then seals the config so it cannot be changed at runtime. The defaults (cosmos, cosmosvaloper, etc.) are defined in types/config.go. Chain developers override them before the app starts: 
config := sdk.GetConfig()
config.SetBech32PrefixForAccount("cosmos", "cosmospub")
config.SetBech32PrefixForValidator("cosmosvaloper", "cosmosvaloperpub")
config.SetBech32PrefixForConsensusNode("cosmosvalcons", "cosmosvalconspub")
config.SetCoinType(118) // SLIP-44 coin type
config.Seal()

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Address Validation

The SDK validates addresses through:
  1. Format validation: Ensures valid Bech32 encoding
  2. Prefix validation: Confirms correct HRP for address type
  3. Length validation: Verifies address is exactly 20 bytes when decoded
func (bc Bech32Codec) StringToBytes(text string) ([]byte, error) {
    hrp, bz, err := bech32.DecodeAndConvert(text)
    if err != nil {
        return nil, err
    }

    if hrp != bc.Bech32Prefix {
        return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid prefix")
    }

    return bz, sdk.VerifyAddressFormat(bz)  // Checks length = 20 bytes
}

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Module Addresses

Module accounts use deterministic address derivation defined in ADR-028: 
// Module address without derivation keys
func Module(moduleName string) []byte {
    return crypto.AddressHash([]byte(moduleName))
}

// Module address with derivation keys (new method)
func Module(moduleName string, derivationKeys ...[]byte) []byte {
    mKey := append([]byte(moduleName), 0)  // Null byte separator
    addr := Hash("module", append(mKey, derivationKeys[0]...))
    return addr  // 32 bytes (not 20 bytes like user addresses)
}
Module addresses are longer (32 bytes vs 20 bytes) to reduce collision probability.

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Validator Address Relationships

A validator has three related addresses:
  1. Operator Address (cosmosvaloper1...): The validator’s operational identity, derived from the operator’s account key
  2. Consensus Address (cosmosvalcons1...): Derived from the validator’s consensus public key (Ed25519), used for block signing
  3. Account Address (cosmos1...): The operator’s account for receiving rewards
// Validator stores its consensus pubkey
type Validator struct {
    OperatorAddress string    // cosmosvaloper1... (from operator's account)
    ConsensusPubkey *Any      // Ed25519 public key for signing
    // ...
}

// Consensus address is derived from the consensus pubkey
func (v Validator) GetConsAddr() ([]byte, error) {
    pk := v.ConsensusPubkey.GetCachedValue().(cryptotypes.PubKey)
    return pk.Address().Bytes(), nil  // SHA-256-20 of Ed25519 pubkey
}

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Performance: Address Caching

The SDK caches Bech32-encoded addresses to optimize repeated conversions: 
var (
    accAddrCache  *simplelru.LRU  // 60,000 entries
    valAddrCache  *simplelru.LRU  // 500 entries
    consAddrCache *simplelru.LRU  // 500 entries
)
When Address.String() is called, the SDK:
  1. Checks the LRU cache for the encoded address
  2. Returns cached value if found
  3. Otherwise, performs Bech32 encoding and caches the result
This significantly improves performance during block processing and state queries.

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Complete Example

Here’s the full pipeline for creating an account address: 
// 1. Generate keypair
privKey := secp256k1.GenPrivKey()          // 32 bytes
pubKey := privKey.PubKey()                 // 33 bytes (compressed)

// 2. Derive address bytes
sha := sha256.Sum256(pubKey.Bytes())       // 32 bytes
ripemd := ripemd160.Sum(sha[:])            // 20 bytes
addrBytes := ripemd[:]

// 3. Create AccAddress type
accAddr := sdk.AccAddress(addrBytes)

// 4. Convert to Bech32 string
// Internally: bech32.ConvertAndEncode("cosmos", addrBytes)
addressStr := accAddr.String()
// Result: "cosmos1r5v5srda7xfth3uckstjst6k05kmeyzptewwdk"

// 5. Use in account
account := auth.NewBaseAccount(accAddr, pubKey, accountNumber, sequence)
  • Accounts - Understanding account types and management
  • Store - How addresses are used as keys in state storage
  • Transactions - How addresses are used in transaction signing