Overview
ADA Handle is a naming service on Cardano that replaces long cryptographic wallet addresses with human-readable identifiers prefixed with a dollar sign — for example, $alice or $adastack. Each ADA Handle is a transferable NFT issued under a single policy ID, and whoever holds the NFT controls where incoming payments route on-chain.1
Built and maintained by Kora Labs, the service targets everyday users, dApp builders, and organizations that want memorable identifiers without giving up custody of their keys. Handles resolve directly from Cardano chain data, so wallets and integrations can look up a name without calling a centralized API.
Key Features
- NFT-backed naming. Every ADA Handle is minted as a CIP-68 NFT under a single on-chain policy identifier that anyone can verify, and the wallet that holds the NFT is the resolution target for payments sent to that name.1
- SubHandles for teams and apps. SubHandles follow a name-at-root pattern (for example, $treasury@acme, where acme is the root Handle and treasury is a SubHandle beneath it) and come in two forms: NFT SubHandles owned independently by their holders, and Virtual SubHandles stored in a smart contract and controlled by the root Handle owner.1
- Audited decentralized minting. The Handles Decentralized Minting (DeMi) Plutus contracts were reviewed in a published audit by Eric Lee and Jesse Anderson, with the full report hosted on Kora Labs' documentation site.2
- HandleAuth and HandleChat. HandleAuth provides OAuth2-style sign-in backed by Handle ownership, and HandleChat enables encrypted one-to-one messaging between Handle owners for supported Cardano wallets.1
- In-house marketplace and personalization. The H.A.L. marketplace supports trading, renting, and customizing Handles through personalization features including backgrounds and cross-chain address records.1
What to Expect
Using ADA Handle starts with minting or buying a Handle through mint.handle.me or a secondary marketplace such as jpg.store, which lists the full ADA Handle collection under the project's policy ID.3 Once the NFT sits in a supported wallet, any platform that integrates Handle resolution can accept a Handle in place of a full address, and sending the NFT to another wallet transfers the name along with the incoming payment routing.
Support for ADA Handle resolution is broadly available across Cardano wallets, and the Cardano Foundation maintains an open-source ADA Handle resolver that lets infrastructure operators index Handles via Yaci Store.4 Beyond basic resolution, owners can personalize how their Handle displays in supporting wallets, set cross-chain address records, and mint SubHandles for structured identity without issuing a new top-level Handle. Governance participants can also mint DRep Handles, which tie a recognizable on-chain name to a delegated representative role in Cardano governance.
