BIP 44 vs BIP 84

BIP 44 and BIP 84 use the same five-level path layout with a different purpose number: m/44'/0'/0' is used for legacy P2PKH addresses that start with 1, and m/84'/0'/0' for native SegWit P2WPKH addresses that start with bc1q. For a new single-key wallet BIP 84 costs less to spend from; BIP 44 matters mainly for restoring older wallets.

Updated 2026-10-20 · 3 min read

At a glance

What BIP 44 and BIP 84 define

BIP 44 (BIP44), by Marek Palatinus and Pavol Rusnak, defines a five-level layout for BIP 32 wallets:

m / purpose' / coin_type' / account' / change / address_index

The purpose is 44', coin type 0' is bitcoin (1' is testnet), accounts count up from 0', change is 0 for receiving and 1 for change, and address indexes count up from 0. BIP 44 also defines account discovery and a gap limit of 20 unused addresses. It was written before SegWit and never names a script type; wallets use it for legacy P2PKH addresses, which is also how BIP 49 describes BIP 44 accounts.

BIP 84 (BIP84), by Pavol Rusnak, keeps that layout and changes only the purpose to 84'. Each key under it is used for a native SegWit P2WPKH output, 0 <20-byte-key-hash>, encoded as a Bech32 address per BIP 173.

BIP 44 vs BIP 84 at a glance

Input sizes assume one compressed public key and a 72-byte ECDSA signature. The transaction size calculator works out the numbers for your own transactions.

xpub vs zpub

A BIP 44 account key is exported as a standard xpub, using BIP 32's version bytes 0x0488B21E. BIP 84 specifies alternate version bytes: 0x04b24746 for zpub and 0x04b2430c for zprv, with vpub and vprv on testnet, as registered in SLIP-0132. The key underneath is an ordinary BIP 32 extended key; the prefix only tells importing software which address type to generate from it. Newer wallets often use output descriptors, pkh(...) versus wpkh(...), which state the script type explicitly.

BIP 84's test vectors use the published test phrase "abandon abandon ... about" (never use it for real funds). Its account key at m/84'/0'/0' starts zpub6rFR7y4Q2AijBEqT..., and the first receiving address at m/84'/0'/0'/0/0 is bc1qcr8te4kr609gcawutmrza0j4xv80jy8z306fyu.

How BIP 84 relates to BIP 44

BIP 84 builds on BIP 44 rather than replacing it. It reuses BIP 44's levels, account discovery and gap limit, and follows the "dedicated accounts" approach first argued in BIP 49: SegWit coins live under their own purpose, so a wallet that doesn't understand BIP 84 shows nothing at all instead of a misleading partial balance. The same seed phrase can hold coins under both paths at once, because 44' and 84' lead to unrelated keys and addresses.

Which should you use?

• New single-key wallet: BIP 84. Its inputs are less than half the size, so spending costs less. BIP 86 Taproot is the other modern option; see BIP 84 vs BIP 86.
• Restoring an old wallet: if your addresses started with 1, the coins are most likely under m/44'/0'/0'. If a restore shows a zero balance, check that the wallet is scanning the right purpose before anything else.
• Paying someone: your own path doesn't limit who you can pay. Any wallet can pay a 1... address; paying a bc1q address requires Bech32 support.

All four common paths are compared in BIP 44 vs 49 vs 84 vs 86. Decode any path with the derivation path tool, identify an address with the address checker, or read the derivation paths guide.