doc/FAQ.html

<html>
<head>
 <title>Abe: Frequently Asked Questions</title>
 <style>
   p.q { font-weight: bold; margin-top: 1em; }
 </style>
 </head>
<body>
<h1>Abe: Frequently Asked Questions</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#pubkey_hash">Where in the database are bitcoin addresses?</a></li>
<li><a href="#address_version">How do I know
    what <code>address_version</code> and <code>code3</code> to use
    for a new alt chain?</a></li>
</ul>

<p class="q"><a name="pubkey_hash">Where in the database are bitcoin
    addresses?</a></p>
<p class="a">A <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Address">bitcoin
  address</a> is an encoding of
  the <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Hash">hash</a> of the public
  part of a keypair in
  someone's <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Wallet">wallet</a>.
  Abe stores only the public key hash,
  in <code>pubkey.pubkey_hash</code>.  Abe converts hash values to
  bitcoin addresses as needed using the <code>hash_to_address</code>
  function in abe.py.</p>
<p class="q"><a name="address_version">How do I know
    what <code>address_version</code> and <code>code3</code> to use
    for a new alt chain?</a></p>
<p class="a"><code>code3</code> can be any 3 characters, e.g. "BTC"
  for bitcoin.  If people expect "DVC" (for example) to mean Devcoin,
  use that.</p>

  <p class="a">For <code>address_version</code>, if you have a valid
  address for the new chain, append it to <code>python -m Abe.abe --query /q/decode_address/</code>.
  For example, Testnet address mgnQ32RSjvmTLB3jVZ9L2xUTT512cCX9b8
  gives
  <code>python -m Abe.abe --query /q/decode_address/mgnQ32RSjvmTLB3jVZ9L2xUTT512cCX9b8</code>,
  which
  shows <code>6f:0de3da453bfd284cd1c94902dbb9bc28bbed139f</code>. Take
  the part to the left of the colon (<code>:</code>) (<code>6f</code>
  for Testnet) and replace "XX" with it in "\u00XX"
  (<code>"\u006f"</code> for Testnet) That is the value
  for <code>address_version</code> in the config file's JSON
  format.</p>

  <p class="a"><code>address_version</code> comes from the first byte
  of the input to SHA256 used
  in <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Protocol_specification#Addresses">address
  computation</a>.  In Bitcoin as of this writing, this information is
  in <a href="https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/d2291cce9235708f3bc3f95ac1b45164a03cd2ce/src/base58.h#L263">src/base58.h</a>:

<pre>
    enum
    {
        PUBKEY_ADDRESS = 0,
        SCRIPT_ADDRESS = 5,
        PUBKEY_ADDRESS_TEST = 111,
        SCRIPT_ADDRESS_TEST = 196,
    };
</pre>

  The byte is 111 for Testnet and 0 for regular Bitcoin.  You would
  translate byte 111 to a JSON string as follows: 111 = '6f'
  (hexadecimal).  In JSON, a 1-byte string is encoded
  as <code>"\u00XX"</code> where XX are the hex digits.  So Testnet
  would be <code>"\u006f"</code>.</p>

  <p class="a">If you get the wrong <code>address_version</code>
  value, everything will work except for address display.  You could
  look up addresses, but they would appear different on web pages.</p>
</body>
</html>