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Keys and accounts

Pipeline from entropy to an address. Entropy, encoded as a seed phrase by BIP-39, derives a seed, then a private key via a derivation path, then a public key via a one-way function, then an address. The entropy, seed phrase, seed, and private key are secret; the public key and address are safe to share. Entropy Seed phrase BIP-39 key derivation (KDF) Seed BIP-32 / SLIP-0010 derivation m/44'/60'/0'/0/0 Private key one-way function Public key encoding Address secret material safe to share

Keys, signatures, and accounts

Section titled “Keys, signatures, and accounts”

A private key is a 256-bit secret number. A one-way function computes the public key from it, which is safe to share. A signature is computed from a message and a private key and verified with the public key alone. A valid signature proves the key’s holder approved that exact message.

A blockchain account is the state a chain tracks for one key pair: a balance and a transaction history. The address is a short encoding of the public key.

mera supports two signature schemes: secp256k1 on Ethereum and other EVM chains (chains that run the Ethereum Virtual Machine), and Ed25519 on Solana.

Deterministic derivation

Section titled “Deterministic derivation”

A key-derivation function (KDF) turns one secret into others: the output looks random, but the same input always produces the same output.

A seed is the byte string a key tree starts from. BIP-32 (secp256k1) and SLIP-0010 (Ed25519) extend one seed into a tree of child keys, a scheme called hierarchical deterministic (HD) derivation, and a derivation path such as m/44'/60'/0'/0/0 names one key in the tree. The same seed and path produce the same key, so one 32-byte value backs any number of accounts with nothing stored per account.

One seed derives a tree of keys. The BIP-44 paths m/44'/60'/0'/0/0 and m/44'/60'/0'/0/1 name two EVM accounts, and the SLIP-0010 path m/44'/501'/0'/0' names a Solana account. The same seed and path produce the same key on any machine. Seed m/44'/60'/0'/0/0 m/44'/60'/0'/0/1 m/44'/501'/0'/0' EVM account 0 secp256k1 · BIP-32 EVM account 1 secp256k1 · BIP-32 Solana account 0 Ed25519 · SLIP-0010 The same seed and path produce the same key on any machine.

Seed phrases

Section titled “Seed phrases”

BIP-39 maps random bytes to a phrase of common words and back: 128 bits become 12 words, 256 bits become 24.

A wallet app that follows the same standards turns an imported phrase back into the same accounts.

Where mera fits

Section titled “Where mera fits”

mera supplies the random bytes this pipeline starts from: the PRF output of a passkey ceremony. Passkey accounts explains the account model built on it.

See also

Section titled “See also”