Wallet Address Formats Across Different Blockchains

Wallet Address Formats Across Different Blockchains

⚠️ Educational content only. Not financial advice. No real transactions involved.

Blockchain networks each define their own address format. Understanding these formats is essential for researchers working across multiple chains and for avoiding cross-chain send errors — a common and irreversible mistake.

Major Address Format Comparison

Blockchain	Format	Example Prefix	Length
TRON	Base58Check with 0x41 prefix	T	34 characters
Ethereum	Hex with 0x prefix (EIP-55 checksum)	0x	42 characters
Bitcoin (Legacy)	Base58Check with 0x00 prefix	1	25-34 characters
Bitcoin (SegWit)	Bech32	bc1	42-62 characters
Solana	Base58 (no checksum)	Variable	32-44 characters
BNB Chain	Identical to Ethereum (EVM compatible)	0x	42 characters

The Cross-Chain Address Problem

A critical research finding: TRON and Ethereum addresses share the same underlying derivation (secp256k1 private key → public key → last 20 bytes of Keccak-256 hash). The difference is only in encoding. This means the same private key generates an Ethereum-format address and a TRON-format address from the same underlying 20-byte value.

However, assets on one network cannot be accessed via the other network’s address representation, even if derived from the same key. Sending ETH to an Ethereum-format address that corresponds to a TRON address (and vice versa) is a known source of irreversible fund loss.

Address Validation

Wallet applications validate addresses before allowing transactions to proceed. TRON wallets check the Base58Check checksum; Ethereum wallets validate the 0x prefix and address length. Sending to an invalid address is typically blocked, but sending to a valid address on the wrong network is not caught by wallet validation.

Explore our research guides, FAQ, and safe research practices for more cross-chain research content.