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Address format

The Bitcoin addresses researched in these resources are all of the original pay-to-public-key-hash (P2PKH) format.

A P2PKH Bitcoin address is a type of Bitcoin address that allows users to send Bitcoin to a specific public key. It is derived from the public key through a series of cryptographic hash functions.

P2PKH addresses are typically 34 or 33 (case-sensitive) characters in length (but can be as short as 26 characters), and typically start with the digit '1'.

They are the most common type of Bitcoin address, securing approximately 43% of the mined bitcoin supply, and are used for standard transactions.

Here is an example P2PKH address:

12cbQLTFMXRnSzktFkuoG3eHoMeFtpTu3S

P2PKH address derivation process​

The address derivation process consists of these steps:

  1. Generate public key: user generates a public/private key pair.

  2. Hash public key: hash the public key using SHA-256, followed by RIPEMD-160 to create a public key hash.

  3. Create address: Encode the public key hash from previous step in a specific format (usually Base58Check). Then, prefix the encoded public key hash with a version byte (0x00 for mainnet).

This results in a P2PKH address with corresponding private key.