# aex-10

```
AEX: 10
Title: Derivation path for deterministic wallets
Author: Andrea Giacobino (@noandrea), Denis Davidyuk (@davidyuk)
License: BSD-3-Clause
Discussions-To: https://forum.aeternity.com/t/aex-10-derivation-path-for-deterministic-wallets/3586
License-Code: ISC
Status: Final
Type: Informational
Created: 2019-03-04
```

### Simple Summary

This aexpansion specify the derivation path used in the Aeternity blockchain for [deterministic wallets](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Deterministic_wallet)

### Motivation

The aexpansion is meant to avoid incompatibility with deterministic wallet implementations across the Aeternity landscape and to make it easy for the derivation path to be found.

### Specification

Accounts derivation path is taken from [BIP-0044](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0044.mediawiki), except that in all path segments hardened derivation is used since [SLIP-0010](https://github.com/satoshilabs/slips/blob/master/slip-0010.md) does not support public derivation.

The derivation path (`m/purpose'/coin_type'/account_index'/change'/address_index'`) is therefore:

m/44<sub>H</sub>/457<sub>H</sub>/${account\_index}<sub>H</sub>/0<sub>H</sub>/${address\_index}<sub>H</sub>

where `account_index` and `address_index` are integer starting from `0`.

The coin type value for Aeternity, `457`, has been generated on random.org and is registered in [SLIP-0044](https://github.com/satoshilabs/slips/blob/master/slip-0044.md).

### References

* [Deterministic wallets](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Deterministic_wallet)
* [`BIP-0032`: Hierarchical Deterministic Wallets](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0032.mediawiki)
* [`BIP-0044`: Multi-Account Hierarchy for Deterministic Wallets](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0044.mediawiki)
* [`SLIP-0010`: Universal private key derivation from master private key](https://github.com/satoshilabs/slips/blob/master/slip-0010.md)
* [`SLIP-0044`: Registered coin types for BIP-0044](https://github.com/satoshilabs/slips/blob/master/slip-0044.md)
* [`BIP32-Ed25519`: Hierarchical Deterministic Keys over a Non-linear Keyspace](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7966967?reload=true)


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.aeternity.com/developer-documentation/aexs/aexs/aex-10.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.