A second address every Cardano wallet has, distinct from the payment address used to send and receive ada. The stake address (also called the reward address) is what the protocol tracks for delegation: it decides which stake pool the wallet's ada is delegated to, and it is where rewards are paid.
A typical Cardano payment address (the addr1... form) actually contains both halves: the payment part that controls spending, and the delegation part (also called the stake part) that controls delegation. Some wallets generate enterprise addresses without the stake part; those can hold ada but cannot delegate or earn rewards.
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- Bech32An address encoding format used for Cardano addresses since the Shelley hard fork.View term
- DelegationThe process of assigning your stake to a stake pool without transferring your ada.View term
- RewardsAda earned by delegators and stake pool operators for participating in the network.View term
- WalletSoftware that stores your private keys and allows you to send, receive, and manage your ada and other tokens.View term