Author: slush 2014-04-08 13:40:05
Published on: 2014-04-08T13:40:05+00:00
In an email thread, Pieter Wuille and Marek Palatinus discuss the purpose of cointype in the context of cryptocurrency. While it is a client-side issue, there are advantages to having all identities and altcoins stored on a single seed to avoid potential issues with using the wrong seed for other purposes. To achieve this, the space needs to be separated, which is achieved by cointype. However, Wuille suggests that if cointype is added, it should be fixed to equal the 4-byte magic in serialization, making it obvious from the serialized form what it is for. In response, Palatinus argues that serialization magic of bip32 seed is completely unnecessary and instead advocates for using the same seed and separating chains inside the bip32 path.
Updated on: 2023-06-08T16:05:28.951734+00:00