Overview

ZetaChain is built with Cosmos SDK and uses the Ethermint module to provide EVM compatibility. Being both a Cosmos and an EVM chain means that ZetaChain supports two types of addresses: bech32 Cosmos addresses (opens in a new tab) and hex EVM addresses (opens in a new tab).

Bech32 addresses are known for their human-readable format, which typically starts with a prefix related to the specific blockchain. These addresses are designed to reduce the risk of errors in transcription and input, thanks to their built-in error detection capabilities. ZetaChain uses the zeta prefix for its bech32 addresses.

EVM addresses, on the other hand, are represented as 20-byte hexadecimal strings and are used to identify accounts on the Ethereum Virtual Machine.

A single account can be represented by both a bech32 address and an EVM address if they are derived from the same public key.

For example, let's consider the following bech32 address:

zeta19nfaqu9wr0fktyyampva98ec025kjy0phww5um

You can query the balance of the account associated with this address using the HTTP API:

https://zetachain-athens.blockpi.network/lcd/v1/public/cosmos/bank/v1beta1/balances/zeta19nfaqu9wr0fktyyampva98ec025kjy0phww5um (opens in a new tab)

The equivalent EVM address for the same account is:

0x2cD3D070aE1BD365909dD859d29F387AA96911e1

You can also query the balance of the account associated with this address using the HTTP API:

https://zetachain-athens.blockpi.network/lcd/v1/public/ethermint/evm/v1/balances/0x2cD3D070aE1BD365909dD859d29F387AA96911e1 (opens in a new tab)

As you can see, both queries return the same balance.

This means, for example, that you can import the same mnemonic into a Cosmos wallet and an EVM wallet and access the same account. Some wallets, like Keplr display both bech32 and hex addresses.

Account Type

If you're having issues interacting from the same account from Cosmos and EVM wallets, check out the account type using the chain's API:

https://zetachain-athens.blockpi.network/lcd/v1/public/cosmos/auth/v1beta1/accounts/zeta19nfaqu9wr0fktyyampva98ec025kjy0phww5um (opens in a new tab)

For Cosmos and EVM compatiblity the account @type should be /ethermint.crypto.v1.ethsecp256k1.PubKey.

Account Address Converter

To convert between bech32 and EVM addresses, you can use the following tool:

Converting between bech32 and EVM addresses is an off-chain operation and can be implemented in any programming language, for example, in TypeScript (opens in a new tab). On the CLI you can also use zetacored debug addr command.