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I've been reading through web3.js's API documentation and come across transactions using IBAN numbers. They appear to be alphanumerical values generated from the public address.

What is their role since they're not used for confidentiality reasons?

marked as duplicate by Waqar Lim Jul 7 '16 at 9:11



IBAN (International Bank Account Number) is the system used by bog-standard banks for transferring between accounts.

Ethereum has ICAP (Inter-exchange Client Address Protocol), which is effectively a decentralised version of IBAN.

From the glossary in the Homestead guide:


There's some further information under Your First Account in this guide.
