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Concepts

Beginner

Accounts: Principals and subaccounts​

ICP token accounts use principals and their associated subaccount to generate an AccountIdentifier value to identify the account owner.

ICRC-1 token accounts use an Account value that corresponds to the pair (principal, subaccount), where a principal can have multiple accounts, and each subaccount of a principal is identified by a 32-byte string.

Principals​

Every token account is owned by a single principal. Principals are unique identifiers used to identify both users and canisters on ICP.

Subaccounts​

Each principal can have multiple accounts identified by a 32-byte string called a subaccount. Subaccounts are used for organizing funds within a single principal for optimized management and transparency. Subaccounts can be used to distinguish between personal funds and business funds, or separate funds for one project from another.

ICP tokens​

The ICP token is the network's native token used for various utility and governance functions, such as:

  • Converting tokens into cycles.

  • Rewarding node providers for contributing resources to the network.

  • Rewarding neurons for staking ICP into a neuron and voting on governance proposals.