HD Wallet & Derivation Paths
The Cauldron Wallet is a hierarchical deterministic (HD) wallet based on standard Bitcoin Cash conventions. This page documents how keys and addresses are derived from a mnemonic phrase.
BIP Standards
The wallet follows these widely adopted standards:
| Standard | Role |
|---|---|
| BIP39 | Mnemonic phrase generation and seed derivation |
| BIP32 | Hierarchical deterministic key derivation |
| BIP44 | Multi-account path structure |
| SLIP-44 | Coin type registry (145 = Bitcoin Cash) |
Root Derivation Path
All keys are derived from a single hardened root path:
m/44'/145'/0'
| Level | Value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
purpose |
44' |
BIP44 — P2PKH addresses |
coin_type |
145' |
Bitcoin Cash (SLIP-44) |
account |
0' |
First account |
Address Chains
From the account node, the wallet derives keys on several child chains, identified by a change index:
m/44'/145'/0'/<chain>/<index>
| Chain | change index |
Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Receive | 0 |
External — addresses shared with others to receive funds |
| Change | 1 |
Internal — change outputs when spending |
| DeFi | 7 |
Custom — addresses for liquidity positions. Used for Cauldron liquidity pools. |
Full path examples
| Chain | Example path |
|---|---|
| Receive, first address | m/44'/145'/0'/0/0 |
| Change, first address | m/44'/145'/0'/1/0 |
| Cauldron, first address | m/44'/145'/0'/7/0 |
The Receive and Change chains follow the BIP44 convention exactly. The Cauldron chain at index 7 is a custom extension — it produces keys whose public key hash is used to derive the user's Cauldron liquidity contract address.
Cauldron Addresses
A Cauldron address is not a regular P2PKH address. It is a smart contract address derived from the public key at m/44'/145'/0'/7/<index>:
cauldron_address = getCauldronContractAddress(hash160(pubkey))
This means the Cauldron address is deterministically tied to the wallet's mnemonic, just like any other address, but points to an on-chain contract rather than a plain key.
Mnemonic
The wallet uses a 12-word BIP39 mnemonic. The mnemonic is the single backup needed to recover all keys across all chains (Receive, Change, and Cauldron).
!!! warning "Keep your mnemonic safe" Anyone with access to the 12-word phrase has full control over all funds and liquidity positions in the wallet. Never share it.
Importing into Other Wallets
The root path m/44'/145'/0' is the standard Bitcoin Cash HD path supported by most BCH wallets. However:
- The DeFi chain (
/7/) is non-standard and will not be visible in wallets that don't support the DeFi extension or have no knowledge of the Cauldron contract. - Most wallets only scan the Receive (
/0/) and Change (/1/) chains. - If another wallet moves funds to addresses beyond what the Cauldron wallet has scanned, those funds will still be recoverable — the Cauldron wallet scans up to 50 addresses ahead of the last known used index on each chain, so gaps introduced by external wallets are typically discovered automatically.