Addresses and strkeys (SEP-0023)

A strkey is a typed binary key, base32-encoded with a checksum (SEP-0023). The first character tells you the type. They are not all accounts, they are not all 32 bytes, and their text order is not their byte order.

The forms

First character	Type	Binary payload	Strkey length	What to store
`G`	Account (ed25519 public key)	32 bytes	56	The account.
`M`	Muxed account	32-byte key + 8-byte ID	69	The `G` account and the 64-bit ID, separately (Rule 4). Never use the `M` form as an account identity.
`P`	Signed-payload signer	32-byte key + 4-byte length + 1–64-byte payload, padded	up to 165	The whole key, payload included (Rule 5). Up to 101 bytes binary.
`C`	Contract	32-byte hash	56	The contract.
`T`	Pre-authorized transaction signer	32-byte hash	56	A signer, not an account.
`X`	Hash(x) signer	32-byte hash	56	A signer, not an account.
`L`	Liquidity pool	32-byte pool ID	56	The pool.
`B`	Claimable balance	1-byte type + 32-byte hash	58	The balance ID.
`S`	Secret seed	32 bytes	56	Never. It’s a private key.

SEP-0023 also reserves W for muxed contracts. Decoders must reject a strkey that doesn’t re-encode to the same string: some base32 libraries accept non-canonical input.

Mistake 1: one column for every key

A database column sized for a 32-byte account (or a 33-byte version-byte-plus-key) can’t hold an M (40 bytes) or a P (up to 101 bytes). wallet-backend#729 is what happens next: the first P… signer on testnet failed to encode, the persistence transaction rolled back with the cursor, and ingestion retried the same ledger forever. The kit reproduces it on the commit before the fix (sightings). Decide per column what it holds. An account column takes G only, so reduce M to its G account first. A signer column takes every signer type, at its full length.

Mistake 2: sorting by the text

Base32 puts 2–7 after A–Z in value, but ASCII puts them before. Two issuers can sort one way as strkeys and the other way as bytes. The network orders assets by the issuer’s key bytes. Before 17.2.1, js-stellar-sdk ordered them by text (#1766): TransactionBuilder.fromXDR threw on a valid pool-share trustline whose issuers fell the wrong way, and the pool ID couldn’t be computed. cap38-pool-issuer-order-local-0001 is a real pool-share trustline whose two issuers were chosen to sort in opposite orders. Sort keys as bytes, or compare with your SDK’s asset comparison (17.2.1 and later in JavaScript).

Mistake 3: equal accounts that compare unequal

GA… and MA… for the same account are different strings. Participant sets, deduplication and primary keys built from strings treat them as two accounts, until a database reduces both to the same key and refuses the second. That’s wallet-backend#716: a single cheap ExtendFootprintTtl from a muxed source halted ingestion. IX003 flags the M form used as a participant in Go code.

Guide

Rules

Addresses and strkeys (SEP-0023)

The forms

Mistake 1: one column for every key

Mistake 2: sorting by the text

Mistake 3: equal accounts that compare unequal