Stellar Address

Overview

A Stellar address represents a network entity using the StrKey encoding family. Traditional account addresses commonly begin with G, contract addresses with C, and multiplexed accounts with M, while secret seeds use a separate private format.

An M-address combines a base account with an embedded numeric identifier, helping custodial services distinguish customers without a separate memo. Address text alone does not prove that the destination exists, accepts a given asset, or has the required trustline. Wallets and services must validate the checksum and type, protect secret seeds, and use the correct network passphrase when signing. They should handle memos and multiplexed addresses according to recipient requirements. Sending an unsupported asset or omitting required routing information can prevent automatic credit even when the transaction succeeds. Systems storing Stellar Address should preserve the exact value together with chain identifiers and type metadata. Normalization, case conversion, truncation, and alias resolution need protocol-aware rules, because a visually similar value can represent a different destination or fail checksum validation.

Higher-value transfers benefit from an independent destination check rather than reliance on shortened display text. Testing for Stellar Address should include valid and invalid examples, wrong-network values, boundary encodings, contract destinations, and any memo or tag requirements. Stellar Address must be interpreted with its network, address or account type, encoding rules, and any required routing fields. A string that passes a format check can still belong to the wrong chain, unsupported asset, contract type, or destination that requires a memo or tag. Technical takeaway: Stellar address prefixes identify encoded entity types, while asset support, routing information, and network signatures require separate checks.