Blockdaemon Builder Vault now supports BIP-44, the widely used standard that explains how hierarchical deterministic (HD) wallets create and organize keys across many accounts, assets, and address types.
For institutions, BIP-44 provides a clear and predictable structure for key management, which becomes essential as portfolios scale. This same structure also offers a future compatibility pathway for Blockdaemon’s Institutional Vault, allowing customers to maintain alignment across products as we continue expanding support for standardized derivation models.
Adding full BIP-44 support inside a Multi-Party Computation (MPC) wallet required careful engineering. BIP-44 depends on hashing secret values during key creation, and MPC systems must perform this work without exposing any secret material to a single participant. In many implementations, this process can become too slow for practical, real-world use. Builder Vault addresses this by performing all required hashing cooperatively across MPC participants in a way that preserves security while maintaining production-level performance.
With this approach, Builder Vault functions as a fully BIP-44-compatible MPC wallet, something uncommon in the market today. Institutions can import existing BIP-44 wallets into Builder Vault, operate them at scale, and, when needed, export or migrate to any other BIP-44-compatible provider. This flexibility reduces vendor lock-in, supports long-term interoperability, and allows teams to maintain a consistent wallet structure across products and platforms.
How BIP-44 Works
BIP-44 builds on the rules defined in BIP-32 and BIP-43 and establishes a five-level derivation path:
m / purpose' / coin_type' / account' / change / address_index
This path acts like a structured filing system for keys. It separates:
- Coin types, such as Bitcoin vs. Bitcoin Testnet
- Accounts, which institutions may use for treasury, custody, or operations
- External and internal chains, used for receiving and change addresses
- Indexed addresses, allowing clean and predictable expansion
A single master seed can generate millions of keys using this deterministic structure. Because the rules are consistent, wallet software can reliably discover, reconstruct, and audit keys, making it easier to enforce internal processes and maintain orderly environments across many teams and business units.
Why BIP-44 Matters for Institutional Key Management
BIP-44 support in Builder Vault matches the key structure used by hardware wallets, custodians, and institutional systems. This gives institutions a unified way to manage derivation paths across different parts of their stack. It reduces operational risk, simplifies audits, and removes the need for custom derivation schemes that can introduce errors over time.
Institutions benefit from:
- Consistent separation of operational domains, including treasury, custody, and production signing
- Predictable and discoverable key hierarchies, which simplify audits and compliance reviews
- Scalable portfolio management, since new accounts and address chains follow the same deterministic rules
- Provider portability, due to full interoperability with other BIP-44 wallets
With Builder Vault, institutions gain the structure of BIP-44 and the security of MPC, allowing them to generate, track, and rotate keys safely across complex digital-asset operations.
Conclusion
By supporting BIP-44 within an MPC architecture, Builder Vault gives institutions a reliable and portable way to manage HD wallets at scale. BIP-44 provides the deterministic structure needed to organize millions of potential addresses, while MPC ensures that private key material remains secure and distributed.
If you’d like to understand how BIP-44 support fits into your current architecture or explore the broader Builder Vault roadmap, our team of experts can walk you through best practices for integrating deterministic key hierarchies into institutional workflows. Book a call today to learn more.
