CashAddr, the Bitcoin Cash address format

When you want to receive or send a payment using Bitcoin Cash, you use addresses. The form in which this information is represented is called address format.

CashAddr is Bitcoin Cash’s own address format. It was introduced after the 2017 update and has become the majority format adopted by wallets, users and platforms.

Before the CashAddr format was used, the Legacy format - also known as Base58 - was used, which has now fallen into disuse and is only supported in the form of backward compatibility.

Note: What must be understood is that, being a different format, it is not the address that changes, but the way of displaying it. That is to say that the same address can be represented as Legacy or CashAddr. It is similar to representing the same number in decimal form (“48”) or in Roman numerals (“XLVIII”). It does not change the number, only its representation format.

When using CashAddr, by default in Bitcoin Cash, the addresses look like this:

bitcoincash:qrxxrefrrup9xwct4j8msyn3yy3m2ks6nut6u0jv5g

While the same address in Legacy format looks like this:

1Kdg817SuWmjMVpytvuXewFq9VcQGE9b9j

Both addresses represent the same public key. They are simply displayed differently.

CashAddr advantages

The main differences between CashAddr and Legacy addresses are:

The bitcoincash: prefix is included by default, although it is optional.
Only lowercase letters are used. They can also be represented with capital letters.
They can be represented more efficiently in QR codes using alphanumeric mode.
They are unique to Bitcoin Cash, so there is no risk of confusion with other cryptocurrencies when making a payment.

Convert from CashAddr to Legacy and vice-versa

The Electron Cash wallet allows you to convert a CashAddr address to Legacy and vice versa, in case any service you use for some reason does not support it.

The following websites also offer an online conversion tool: