Address Formats

A Tidecoin address is an encoded destination. It tells a wallet how to build the locking script for a payment, and it tells the sender which network and address family they are using.

This page explains addresses for users and integrators. The canonical encoding rules live in Protocol / Address Formats.

The Short Version

Address family	What it means	Mainnet status
Base58 key-hash	A hash of a serialized post-quantum public key	Live compatibility surface
Base58 script-hash	A hash of a redeem script	Live compatibility surface
Witness v0	Bitcoin-style SegWit v0 hash program	Live compatibility surface
PQ witness v1	64-byte SHA-512 script hash with PQ HRP	Implemented, activates with AuxPoW

If you are using a wallet, let the wallet generate the address. If you are building an integration, validate against the active network and the exact address family instead of checking only a prefix string.

Network Prefixes

Different networks use different address prefixes so test coins are not accidentally sent to mainnet destinations.

Network	Base58 key-hash prefix	Base58 script-hash prefix	Witness v0 HRP	PQ witness v1 HRP
Mainnet	`33`	`70` or `65`	`tbc`	`q`
Testnet	`92`	`132` or `127`	`ttbc`	`tq`
Regtest	`117`	`186` or `122`	`rtbc`	`rq`

The human-readable prefix is only part of validation. A valid-looking address can still be wrong for the selected network or inactive for the current chain rules.

Base58 Addresses

Base58Check addresses are the familiar legacy-style address format. Tidecoin uses Tidecoin-specific network bytes, but the concept is the same:

a key-hash address commits to HASH160(serialized_pq_public_key);
a script-hash address commits to HASH160(serialized_redeem_script).

The serialized PQ public key includes a one-byte scheme prefix. That prefix is part of what the address commits to.

Witness v0 Addresses

Witness v0 addresses use bech32 and the network’s witness v0 HRP:

mainnet: tbc;
testnet: ttbc;
regtest: rtbc.

Witness v0 can encode 20-byte key hashes and 32-byte script hashes. It uses the original bech32 checksum, not bech32m.

PQ Witness v1 Addresses

PQ witness v1 is Tidecoin’s SHA-512 script-hash path. It uses a 64-byte witness program and a PQ-specific HRP:

mainnet: q;
testnet: tq;
regtest: rq.

PQ witness v1 must use bech32m and witness version 1. On mainnet it is implemented but gated by AuxPoW activation, so wallets should not present it as the default production receive type until the activation status supports it.

User Rules

Copy addresses with the wallet’s copy button or QR flow.
Confirm the network before sending.
Send a small test transaction for new recipients or new wallet software.
Do not edit address text manually.
Do not assume a testnet address can be converted into a mainnet address.

Integration Rules

Decode with the selected chain parameters.
Validate the checksum family: bech32 for witness v0, bech32m for PQ witness v1.
Validate witness version and program length.
Reject wrong-network prefixes.
Do not offer inactive output types as default mainnet receive options.
Use Address Validation for service-facing validation behavior.