Bitcoin Cash Specification

Network Address

Specifies the basic information necessary to connect to a peer node.

Format

Field Length Format Description
timestamp* 4 bytes unix timestamp(LE) Last known time (in seconds) that the peer was known to be “live.”
services 8 bytes bitfield(LE) The services this node supports. See Services Bitfield.
IP address 16 bytes ip address The IP (v4 or v6) address used to connect to the peer.
port 2 bytes unsigned integer(BE) The port used to the connect to the peer.

* timestamp is not included where network addresses appear in the version message format

IP Address Format

A single format is used to specify IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, IPv4-mapped IPv6 addresses:

  • If the intended address is IPv6, the standard “network byte order” or big-endian byte encoding is used.
  • If the intended address is IPv4, the first 12 bytes are set to 0x00000000000000000000FFFF, followed by the big-endian IPv4 address.