BIP 44 (Derivation Paths for P2PKH)

Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 44 defines the standard derivation path for wallets which generate Pay-to-Public-Key-Hash (P2PKH) addresses. BIP 44 also defines the prefixes to be used with associated extended keys.

According to BIP 44, wallets which generate P2PKH addresses should use a derivation path beginning with “m/44’/”. This means the first address generated by a mainnet Bitcoin wallet will have a derivation path of “m/44’/0’/0’/0/0”.

In addition, all such wallets which use mainnet Bitcoin should use the “xpub” or “xprv” prefix for extended public and private keys respectively. Extended keys using the BIP 44 standard are thus called xpubs and xprvs respectively. If the wallet is a testnet wallet, “tpub” and “tprv” prefixes are used instead.

This standard was implemented to ensure that Hierarchical Deterministic (HD) wallets, as defined in BIP 32, can import extended keys and find the bitcoin stored on that wallet.

The HD wallet scheme defines a method for deriving a practically unlimited number of public and private keys from a single extended key. However, if an extended key is imported to a wallet with no guidance, it may be hard for the wallet to find the keys with bitcoin, a requirement for displaying the correct balance to the user.

The standards set by BIP 44, along with BIP 49 and BIP 84, fix this problem. When a wallet imports an extended key, the prefix indicates exactly which derivation path to use to find bitcoin and derive new addresses.