Wallets and External Accounts

Accounts are payment network-specific classes that perform the following functions:

• keep track of current balances from each of the tracked tokens available on the network
• keep track of routing details that are needed for users that want to deposit or make payments to the hub
• store and provide credentials to perform withdrawals from the hub

Depending on the use-case, you might be interested in using different types of accounts on the same payment network. For example, if you want to use Hub20 to accept payments via blockchain but you are not interested in letting other users make payouts, it makes sense to use "Cold" wallets, i.e, accounts that do not store any private keys and therefore can not sign any transactions.

Currently, only the ethereum module defines Account models:

• ColdWallet is the model that stores only the address, and can only receive payments
• KeystoreAccount is a basic model that stores the private key in the database. This model allows hub operators to have an easy way to get started, but it is not recommended for production settings.
• HierarchicalDeterministicWallet is a model that uses can generate new addresses on demand from one single seed phrase. It is the current recommended method to be used for those that want to operate a hub that is able to execute transactions automatically.