Resolve Unicode names

Before you start

• Supported networks: mainnet.
• Status: protocol behavior for the rules, Universe implementation for the resolution service.
• Do this before paying to any name.

The procedure

1. Take the exact bytes of the name, not a rendering of it.
2. Normalise it for comparison. Keep the original bytes separately.
3. Resolve the normalised form to an Atomical ID.
4. Read that Atomical’s current location and owner script.
5. Compare the name against names you already use. Look for mixed scripts and confusable characters.
6. Display the resolved address to whoever is about to act, and get their confirmation.

Three forms, three uses

Form	Use
Exact minted bytes	Identity, storage, and what the validator saw
Normalised form	Comparison, deduplication, confusable detection
Display form	What a reader sees, escaped and marked when risky

Never store only the normalised form, and never display it as if it were the name.

Warning signs

• The name mixes scripts, for example Latin and Cyrillic characters in one word.
• The name uses combining marks where a precomposed character is usual.
• The name contains bidirectional control characters.
• The name is one character different from one you already trust.
• The name arrived in a message rather than from a source you control.

If validation fails

A rejected name should tell you which character and which rule. The Universe read model surfaces Unicode and IDNA errors explicitly rather than returning a generic failure, so read the error rather than guessing.

Source

Unicode, IDNA, and confusable names and Paynames.