Welcome to Handles

Handles Overview

For the vast majority, interacting with any cryptocurrency is as daunting as it is unfriendly. Cryptographic hashes make up the address markers for wallets that we see every day — yet while these hashes are unique and (realistically) never duplicated, they are also intimidating and impractical for everyday use. To complicate matters further, UTXO-based blockchains like Bitcoin and Cardano, utilize multiple addresses: a user gets a new address (or UTXO address) every time they want to send/receive native assets. Handles introduces a simple and elegant solution to the Cardano ecosystem, and aims to build tooling infrastructure on par with the largest vendors on the market today.

Handles

Handles is an NFT-powered naming solution for your Cardano wallet address. They are NFT-based assets, minted on the CIP-68 datum via Handle.me's minting engine, secured entirely on-chain via the Handle Standard. Handles are a standardized NFT that owners can use to associate an address, datum, script, or UTxO, with a custom and human-readable name. A Handle address takes the form where the Cardano native address is addr1qxx00r962ku8dl7wekn67kxxxjpcyfyul4dtgkkwzu3nqs5dsnkrcr6p03zvxn2k4vh5scr0h f9nc072lwr4fgs4k43qjswugd. Each Handle you purchase will be delivered to you as an NFT and whatever wallet holds that NFT is where payments will be routed.

SubHandles

SubHandles are an extension of Handles designed to allow individuals, companies, dApps, and everyone else that need more than one Handle associated with a name or brand. Examples of SubHandles, using a fictitious company name: ACME, are: and . In this example, is the root Handle and the SubHandle.

NFT SubHandles

NFT SubHandles are one of the two potential forms of SubHandles. They operate identically to Handles, they are NFT-based assets, minted on the CIP-68 datum, and they resolve to the wallet address they are sent to. Whoever holds the NFT SubHandle is the owner of that asset and the root Handle owner has no power over it. For additional information on NFT SubHandles, please visit the NFT SubHandles page.

Virtual SubHandles

Virtual SubHandles are the second form of SubHandles. They are not NFT-based assets, but rather an asset inside a Smart Contract that resolves to an address set by the root Handle. Virtual SubHandles are owned by the root Handle owner and can be created, edited, and revoked by the root Handle owner. For additional information on Virtual SubHandles, please visit the Virtual SubHandles page.

Marketplace

For background collections, assets, and creator defaults, start with the Marketplace backgrounds guide.

Handle Chat

HandleChat lets people with supported Cardano wallets and Handle NFTs start one-to-one chats using . Today it supports wallet sign-in, chat requests, encrypted text messages, and local chat history on the current device. For the full walkthrough, visit the HandleChat documentation.