75 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
75 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Address
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description: A simple interface to generate and validate a bitcoin address.
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---
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# Address
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## Description
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Represents a bitcoin address. Addresses are the most popular way to make bitcoin transactions. See [the official Bitcoin Wiki](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Address) for technical background information.
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## Instantiate an Address
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To be able to receive bitcoins an address is needed, but in order to spend them a private key is necessary. Please take a look at the [`PrivateKey`](privatekey.md) docs for more information about exporting and saving a key.
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```javascript
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var privateKey = new PrivateKey();
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var address = privateKey.toAddress();
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```
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You can also instantiate an Address from a String, [PublicKey](publickey.md), or [HDPublicKey](hierarchical.md), in case you are not the owner of the private key.
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```javascript
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// from a string
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var address = Address.fromString('mwkXG8NnB2snbqWTcpNiK6qqGHm1LebHDc');
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// a default network address from a public key
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var publicKey = PublicKey(privateKey);
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var address = new Address(publicKey);
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// alternative interface
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var address = Address.fromPublicKey(publicKey);
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// a testnet address from a public key
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var publicKey = new PublicKey(privateKey);
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var address = new Address(publicKey, Networks.testnet);
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```
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A pay-to-script-hash multisignature Address can be instantiated from an array of [PublicKeys](publickey.md).
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```javascript
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// a 2-of-3 address from public keys
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var p2shAddress = new Address([publicKey1, publicKey2, publicKey3], 2);
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```
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## Validating an Address
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The main use that we expect you'll have for the `Address` class in Bitcore is validating that an address is a valid one, what type of address it is (you may be interested on knowing if the address is a simple "pay to public key hash" address or a "pay to script hash" address) and what network does the address belong to.
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The code to do these validations looks like this:
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```javascript
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// validate an address
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if (Address.isValid(input){
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...
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}
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// validate that an input field is a valid testnet address
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if (Address.isValid(input, Networks.testnet){
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...
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}
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// validate that an input field is a valid livenet pubkeyhash
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if (Address.isValid(input, Networks.livenet, Address.Pay2PubKeyHash){
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...
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}
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// get the specific validation error that can occurred
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var error = Address.getValidationError(input, Networks.testnet);
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if (error) {
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// handle the error
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}
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}
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```
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The errors are listed in the generated file in the [errors folder](https://github.com/bitpay/bitcore/tree/master/lib/errors). There's a structure to errors defined in the [spec.js file](https://github.com/bitpay/bitcore/tree/master/lib/errors/spec.js).
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