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Address-Owned Objects

Address-owned objects in IOTA are tied to a specific 32-byte address, which can be either an account address (derived from a signature scheme) or an object ID. These objects are exclusively accessible to their owner, ensuring that no other entity can interact with them.

As the owner, you have full control over the address-owned objects. You can transfer ownership to another address or execute transactions involving these objects in parallel with others, without requiring consensus, as long as they don’t share common objects.

Creating Address-Owned Objects​

To create an address-owned object, use one of the following functions from the transfer module:

public fun transfer<T: key>(obj: T, recipient: address)
public fun public_transfer<T: key + store>(obj: T, recipient: address)

After creating an address-owned object, its ownership can change over time by transferring it, adding it as a dynamic object field, or making it immutable. \However, once created, an address-owned object cannot be shared with others.

Accessing Address-Owned Objects​

There are two ways to access address-owned objects, depending on whether the owner address corresponds to an object ID.

  1. If the owner address corresponds to an object ID: You must dynamically authenticate and access the object during the transaction execution using the methods described in Transfer to Object.

  2. If the owner address is a signature-derived address (an account address): You can access the object directly during the transaction that the owning address signs. No other address can interact with or even read the object in that transaction.

When to Use Address-Owned Objects​

Address-owned objects are ideal when you need exclusive ownership at any given time. They are generally preferred over shared objects when feasible, as they do not require sequencing through consensus, making them less susceptible to throughput bottlenecks in high-usage scenarios.

Example​

A common example of an address-owned object is a Coin object. Suppose address 0xA11CE owns a coin C containing 100 IOTA and wants to transfer them to address 0xB0B:

iota::transfer::public_transfer(C, @0xB0B);

After the transfer, C becomes owned by 0xB0B, and 0xB0B can use the 100 IOTA as needed.

Question 1/4

What types of addresses can own an address-owned object in IOTA?