Address

The Evolution SDK provides Core.Address for working with modern Cardano addresses. This module handles parsing, validation, inspection, and conversion between formats.

Modern Address Types

Cardano primarily uses two address types today:

Base Address - Payment + staking credentials (most common)
Enterprise Address - Payment credential only (no staking rewards)

Legacy formats (Byron, Pointer) exist for historical compatibility but are no longer used in practice.

Basic Operations

Parsing Addresses

import {  } from "@evolution-sdk/evolution";

// Parse from Bech32 (most common format)
const  = ..(
  "addr1qx2kd28nq8ac5prwg32hhvudlwggpgfp8utlyqxu6wqgz62f79qsdmm5dsknt9ecr5w468r9ey0fxwkdrwh08ly3tu9sy0f4qd"
);

// Parse from hex
const  = ..(
  "01195a6a8c607b8a0237109aab5e31b7c8828509fb17e4019cd381021a4f8a081b7bd1b0d35972c0e8eaba8e5c923c99d66a3bbe78ff23c5855"
);

Converting Formats

import {  } from "@evolution-sdk/evolution";

const  = ..(
  "addr1qx2kd28nq8ac5prwg32hhvudlwggpgfp8utlyqxu6wqgz62f79qsdmm5dsknt9ecr5w468r9ey0fxwkdrwh08ly3tu9sy0f4qd"
);

// Convert to different formats
const  = ..();  // "addr1qx2k..."
const  = ..();        // "01195a6a..."
const  = ..();    // Uint8Array

Validating User Input

import {  } from "@evolution-sdk/evolution";

function (: string): .. | null {
  try {
    const  = ..();
    
    // Check network (0 = testnet, 1 = mainnet)
    if (. !== 1) {
      .("Not a mainnet address");
    }
    
    return ;
  } catch () {
    .("Invalid address:", );
    return null;
  }
}

Address Inspection

Type Checking

import {  } from "@evolution-sdk/evolution";

const  = ..(
  "addr1qx2kd28nq8ac5prwg32hhvudlwggpgfp8utlyqxu6wqgz62f79qsdmm5dsknt9ecr5w468r9ey0fxwkdrwh08ly3tu9sy0f4qd"
);

// Check address type
const  = ..(..());
const  = ..(); // false
const  = ..(); // true

if (?. === "Base") {
  .("Base address with staking capability");
} else if () {
  .("Enterprise address - no staking rewards");
}

Address Details

For comprehensive information about an address:

import {  } from "@evolution-sdk/evolution";

const  = ..(
  "addr1qx2kd28nq8ac5prwg32hhvudlwggpgfp8utlyqxu6wqgz62f79qsdmm5dsknt9ecr5w468r9ey0fxwkdrwh08ly3tu9sy0f4qd"
);

if () {
  .("Type:", .);                    // "Base"
  .("Network:", .);            // 1 (mainnet)
  .("Bech32:", ..);        // Original Bech32 string
  .("Hex:", ..);              // Hex representation
}

Address Construction

For advanced use cases, you can construct addresses from credentials:

import {  } from "@evolution-sdk/evolution";

// Create payment credential from key hash
const  = new ..({
  : new (28) // 28-byte key hash
});

// Create staking credential  
const  = new ..({
  : new (28) // 28-byte key hash
});

// Construct base address directly
const  = new ..({
  : 1, // mainnet
  : ,
  : 
});

const  = ..();

Legacy Address Types

For historical compatibility, Evolution SDK supports legacy address formats via Core.AddressEras:

Byron addresses - Legacy Byron-era format (no longer used)
Pointer addresses - Reference stake credentials via on-chain pointers (deprecated)

These are automatically handled when parsing existing UTXOs but should not be used for new addresses.

Summary

Function	Purpose
`fromBech32()`	Parse Bech32 address string
`fromHex()`	Parse hex address string
`toBech32()`	Convert to Bech32 string
`toHex()`	Convert to hex string
`isEnterprise()`	Check if enterprise address (no staking)
`hasStakingCredential()`	Check if address has staking capability
`getAddressDetails()`	Get comprehensive address information

Best Practices

Use Base addresses for most applications (enables staking rewards)
Validate network ID to prevent testnet/mainnet mixups
Parse once, reuse - avoid re-parsing the same address strings
Handle errors gracefully when parsing user input

Next Steps

Address Validation - Error handling and validation patterns
Address Conversion - Transform between formats
Address Construction - Build addresses from credentials

Address

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