Best Practices

Following best practices ensures a cohesive ecosystem experience for everyone.

The Handle Standard goes beyond the NFT metadata for each Handle and includes the best practices that follow. dApp developers should uphold the best practices outlined below when querying and displaying Handles to their users, further increasing the value of a standard across the ecosystem.

Display / Branding

• When referencing handles, always use Handle or Handles.

• When referencing the standard, always use Handle Standard or ADA Handle Standard.

• Never reference handles with the prefix, such as $adahandle or $handle.

Developers

• To initiate a Handle lookup, a user should start typing an address with the $ character.

• When debouncing a Handle lookup, you should always:

  • Show the last few characters of the resolved Handle so the user can independently verify the destination address if they so choose.

  • Re-fetch the final Handle on submit. This ensures the most accurate destination at the time of sending, as well as safeguards against slow internet connections resolving Handles before the user is done typing.

• When querying a Handle, you should never allow an empty string. An empty string will return a valid address, but it is not a valid Handle. In accordance with CIP-0027, ADA Handle minted a blank Handle to store our royalty percentage and payment address, but it should be ignored.

• If a Handle resides inside of a smart contract, an associated datum must be attached to the transaction. If not, the funds will be lost and the smart contract will not have the authority to spend those assets later. Read more on datums and redeemers.