← Back to Bitcoin Improvement Proposals
BIPinformational

BIP380: make specs consistent about hardened indicators

Me and my students noticed a discrepancy in the test vectors and specification regarding the allowed characters denoting hardened nodes. The [BIP380](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0380.mediawiki) specs allows all three `h`, `'` and `H`, in particular the specs read: > In the above specification, the hardened indicator `h` may be replaced with alternative hardened indicators of `H` or `'`. However, the following is then an **invalid** test vectors: > [deadbeef/0H/0H/0H]0260b

No reviews
quapka·Updated Jun 20, 2025·0 reviews·0 attestations·View source
Collections:BIPs — Merged

Specification

Me and my students noticed a discrepancy in the test vectors and specification regarding the allowed characters denoting hardened nodes. The BIP380 specs allows all three h, ' and H, in particular the specs read:

In the above specification, the hardened indicator h may be replaced with alternative hardened indicators of H or '.

However, the following is then an invalid test vectors:

[deadbeef/0H/0H/0H]0260b2003c386519fc9eadf2b5cf124dd8eea4c4e68d5e154050a9346ea98ce600

Thus, I've added new test vectors allowing H and removed the inconsistent one.

However, I am far from claiming that this is the correct way how to handle this. I've checked that people are using the H, but I got no (meaningful or relevant) hits when searching for the exact test vector. I didn't see the option to create issues, thus I've continued by proposing the, what seems to be, reasonable changes.

Discussion (0 threads)

Loading discussions...