Encoding and decoding of Ethereum transactions and messages to be transmitted using QR codes for external signing

The purpose of this document is to describe an efficient way of encoding Ethereum transactions in order to be transmitted over using QR codes. Since the amount of data to be transmitted is very limited we apply simple compression, and create numeric codes, since it is more effectively transmittable using QR codes.

Message signing

In case of message signing, since there is no limitation of message bytes, we use no special encoding. The following table displays the simple encoding we use:

0-1 digits	2-3 digits	n digits message
error check	Signature type + version	message bytes

Error check = rightmost 2 digits of the sha3(signature + version + message bytes)

• Signable messages will not be encoded or compressed.
• Typed messages must follow the json encoding standard.

Transaction encoding

The Transaction encoding has the following characteristics:

1. The transaction data encode from left to right the 0 th digit being the leftmost digit.
2. The final data to be transmitted contains only numbers, no letters or special characters.
3. Digit 9 is used as an escape number to escape 9, a-f characters, delimiter, and compression encoding. The reason for this is that QR codes allow 1.6 times more numeric than alphanumeric characters.
4. Since ethereum transactions use a lot of zeros, we use compression for zeros.
5. We encode the from address in a way that we use its leftmost 4 hex digits (digits 0-3) the the 'middle' two digits (digits 18-19), and then the rightmost 4 digits (digits 36-39) are concatenated. Since signer must know the from address, we can spare digits by using only parts.

We put together the transaction in four steps:

1. A "flat string" representation of the transaction is created, that contains no unnecessary characters, and in which we put the fixed width components together to spare delimiters.
2. The "flat string" is escaped (called 9 escape) to create a "numeric string".
3. The numeric string is "zero compressed" to create a "compressed numeric string".
4. The compressed numeric string receives an error check byte to create a "verifiable string".

The "flat string" representation of the transaction

0-1 hex digits	2-11. digits	12-51. digits
Signature type + chain id + version	from address (only part)	to address

n digits delimited (only present if not encoded in 0-1 digits)	delimiter
chainId (only if was not encoded into the 0-1 digits)	(if chainId was encoded before)

n digits delimited	delimiter	n digits delimited	delimiter
nonce		gasPrice

n digits delimited	delimiter	n digits delimited	delimiter
gasLimit		value

n digits
data

From address: Only the lefmost 4, 18-19 th (counting from 0 th) , and the rightmost 4 digits is kept from the from address.

Transaction and message signing

0-1 digits encoded in hex, and then 9 escaped. This contains the Protocol version encoding, the signing type and the chainId.

Protocol version encoding

0-1 bits (lowest bits): Protocol version

Code (hex)	Meaning
0	Current version
1-3	Future versions

Signing type encoding

2-3 bits: signing type

Code (hex)	Meaning
0	sign_transaction
1	sign_message
2	sign_personal_message
3	sign_typed_data

ChainId encoding

4-7 bits: ChainId

Code (hex)	Meaning
0	1: Frontier, Homestead, Metropolis, the Ethereum public main network
1	1: Classic, the (un)forked public Ethereum Classic main network, chain ID 61
2	1: Expanse, an alternative Ethereum implementation, chain ID 2
3	2: Morden, the public Ethereum testnet, now Ethereum Classic testnet
4	3: Ropsten, the public cross-client Ethereum testnet
5	4: Rinkeby, the public Geth PoA testnet
6	42: Kovan, the public Parity PoA testnet
7	77: Sokol, the public POA Network testnet
8 (!!!)	chainId encoded starting in the 54 th digit, and not here!!!!
9	99: Core, the public POA Network main network
a	7762959: Musicoin, the music blockchain
a-f	reserved

If the chainId of the network differs from the above, then choinId '8' should be encoded here, and chainId should be encoded into digit no. 52 of the "flat string", and a delimiter should be placed after.

Eg.:

• To sign a transaction on mainnet: 0 th byte is be 0 (version code) + 0 (sign transaction) * 4 + 16 * 0 (chain id = 0) = 0x00
• To sign a transaction on Kovan: 0 th byte is 0 (version code) + 0 (sign transaction) * 4 + 16 * 6 (code of kovan) = 0x30
• To sign a message on kovan: 0 th byte is 0 (version code) + 1 (sign message) * 4 + 16 * 6 (code of kovan) = 0x34

Numeric string creation

The process during which form an alphanumeric code containing chars of 0-9 a-f, we create a code that solely contains numeric 0-9 characters. We do this using escaping 9, a-f characters using '9'. This is useful since using numeric characters only, QR code can transmit 1.6 times more data, than in case of alphanumeric data.

"9 escape" flat transactions string

1. First the alphanumeric code will be escaped with digit 9 in order to remove letters a-f and delimiters between variable length fields.

Hex digit to encode	Encoded digit	Meaning
a	90
b	91
c	92
d	93
e	94
f	95
|	96	delimiter between variable length data
zero compression	97	compress zeros (see later)
reserved, do not use	98
9	99

The rationale of this step is that QR codes can transmit 1.6 times more numeric, than alphanumeric data. We are still better off with escaping, than with using alphanumeric mode.

Compressed numeric string creation using zero compression

The reason of zero compression is to compress the many zeros in ethereum transactions, arising because of 0 padding.

To encode	Encoded
0000	970
00000	971
000000	972
000000000000	973
000000000000000000000000	974
0 x 48 (fourtyeight zeros)	975
reserved, do not use	976
reserved, do not use	977
reserved, do not use	978
do not use	979

Eg.: to encode 0x0000000000000000000000000000002a hex, we first remove the '0x' from the beginning, then excape the 9-f digits. So we end up with: 000000000000000000000000000000290, then we do the zero compressing: we would start from the left and check what is the biggest 0 chunk we can compress. That will be 24 zeros since that is the biggest chunk we can compress at once. And the next would be 6 more zeros. so the encoded hex would be: 974972290 th This is much shorter than the original, and contains only numbers.

Verifiable string creation with error check byte

After the zero compressed numeric string has been created, we calculate an error checking

Verifiable string looks like the following:

0-1 digits	n digits
Error check	Zero compressed numeric string

The error check is created using the rightmost two digits of keccak256(Zero compressed numeric string).

A complete example

Let's start with the following transaction json data:

{"type":"sign_transaction":
"from":"0x1204d2a2f9a823c1a585fde6514a17ff695e0001",
"to":"0xb2565129883cfffe21a88eeafaa3ccd9ec5f6539",
"chainId":"1",
"nonce":"0x2d",
"gasPrice":"0x0165a0bc00",
"gasLimit":"0x5208",
"value":"0x68155a43676e00000",
"data":"0x000000000000000000000000000000af00000000000000000000000023ff99"}

Transaction encoding example

0. Put together the tx in the following way

1204d2a2f9a823c1a585fde6514a17ff695e0001b2565129883cfffe21a88eeafaa3ccd9ec5f65392d|0165a0bc00|5208|68155a43676e00000|000000000000000000000000000000af00000000000000000000000023ff99

Notice:

• that the chain id has been removed, since it will be encoded in two hex digits and to to the left of the string above.
• that there is NO delimiter before the to address. This is because to the left from to address, all the values are of fixed lenth.
• that there is NO delimiter before nonce. This is because to the left from nonce, all the values are of fixed lenth.

1. Keep only the lefmost 4, 18-19 th (counting from 0 th) , and the rightmost 4 digits from the from address to get:

1204850001b2565129883cfffe21a88eeafaa3ccd9ec5f65392d|0165a0bc00|5208|68155a43676e00000|000000000000000000000000000000af00000000000000000000000023ff99

2. Create the two digits for version + sign type + chain id

0 (version) + 4 * 0 (sign_transaction) + 16 * 0 (chain id code) = 00

We get:

001204850001b2565129883cfffe21a88eeafaa3ccd9ec5f65392d|0165a0bc00|5208|68155a43676e00000|000000000000000000000000000000af00000000000000000000000023ff99

3. 9 escape the digits 9-f

00120485000191256512998839295959594219088949490959090392929399949259565399293|0165900919200|5208|6815590436769400000|00000000000000000000000000000090950000000000000000000000002395959999

Notice that after 9 escaping there should be no a-f in the code.

4. 9 escape the delimiters

The code of the delimiters is 96 so we end up:

001204850001912565129988392959595942190889494909590903929293999492595653992939601659009192009652089668155904367694000009600000000000000000000000000000090950000000000000000000000002395959999

5. Do zero compression:

Since we have a 24 length of zeroes in the code (we substitute that with code of 974) the intermediate encoding is this:

001204850001912565129988392959595942190889494909590903929293999492595653992939601659009192009652089668155904367694000009697400000090959742395959999

Since there is a 6 length of zeroes (encoded 972) we can further compress it to have:

001204850001912565129988392959595942190889494909590903929293999492595653992939601659009192009652089668155904367694000009697497290959742395959999

Since there is still a 5 length of zeroes (encoded 971) we can substitute:

0012048500019125651299883929595959421908894949095909039292939994925956539929396016590091920096520896681559043676949719697497290959742395959999

There is no 4 zeros to substitute, so we stop zero compression.

6. We get the sha3 (keccak 256) of the previous data to treating it as hex.

sha3(0x0012048500019125651299883929595959421908894949095909039292939994925956539929396016590091920096520896681559043676949719697497290959742395959999) = 34787a5c78d1ce7077a2723a945f41ada69a102add88ef3ddcede8377234babf

The rightmost two digits are bf.

7. We 9 escape bf to get 9195. This goes to the left end of our data. So we get the end result of:

91950012048500019125651299883929595959421908894949095909039292939994925956539929396016590091920096520896681559043676949719697497290959742395959999

So from a 308 bytes long of byte data we got a 146 long of numeric data.

Transaction decoding example

To decode the above we do the following:

1. We take the leftmost two digits, if it starts with 9 then we take the next digit, if that is nine too, we take the next one. The 0 th digit is 9 so we take the next one which is 1,and 91 decodes to 'b'. Then we take the next digit whic is 9 and then the next one which is 5 , so we decode 95 to 'f'. So the error check byte is bf.

2. We calculate the sha3 of the remaining code taken as hex to calculate: sha3(0012048500019125651299883929595959421908894949095909039292939994925956539929396016590091920096520896681559043676949719697497290959742395959999) = 34787a5c78d1ce7077a2723a945f41ada69a102add88ef3ddcede8377234babf

The rightmost two digits bf match with the error check code of bf, so we are fine. (If not then the QR code we read was probably wrong.)

3. We 9 unescape the code.

!!!!!This should be the first unescape. Otherwise the code will be wrong!!!!!

First we mark all 99 in the code to get: 00120485000191256512m88392959595942190889494909590903929293m9492595653m2939601659009192009652089668155904367694971969749729095974239595mm

4. Zero decompress the code, meaning search for 970-975 codes and replace them with corresponding zeros.

We found 971 in the code and replaced that with 5 zeros to get:

00120485000191256512m88392959595942190889494909590903929293m9492595653m293960165900919200965208966815590436769400000969749729095974239595mm

We found 972 in the code and converted it to 000000 to get:

00120485000191256512m88392959595942190889494909590903929293m9492595653m293960165900919200965208966815590436769400000969740000009095974239595mm

We found 974 in the code and converted it to 24 x 0 to get:

00120485000191256512m88392959595942190889494909590903929293m9492595653m293960165900919200965208966815590436769400000960000000000000000000000000000009095000000000000000000000000239595mm

We found no code of 975 so we are done with decompression.

5. We 9 unescape the code.

Unescape the delimiters (encoded 96):

00120485000191256512m88392959595942190889494909590903929293m9492595653m293|0165900919200|5208|6815590436769400000|0000000000000000000000000000009095000000000000000000000000239595mm

Then decode 90-95 to get a-f:

001204850001b256512m883cfffe21a88eeafaa3ccdmec5f653m2d|0165a0bc00|5208|68155a43676e00000|000000000000000000000000000000af00000000000000000000000023ffmm

Then substitute 9 instead of 'm':

001204850001b2565129883cfffe21a88eeafaa3ccd9ec5f65392d|0165a0bc00|5208|68155a43676e00000|000000000000000000000000000000af00000000000000000000000023ff99

Notes:

• Lets check the leftmost two digits. Since it is 00 we know that we got a version 0, and we must sign a transaction.
• Since the chainId was encoded 0 which means we are signing an Ethereum mainnet tx. That also means that the 2d does not represent a chainId (since it was already encoded in the 0-1 hex digit). If we had received a 0-1 hex digit of 18 this is dedimal 24. Since 24 % 16 = 8, this would mean that the chainId was not encoded in the 0-1 digits, but is encoded after the to address starting at 52 th digit.
• The from address can be easily determined at signer from digits 2-11 by comparing corresponding digits.