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