Program derived address (PDA)
Last updated:
Applies to: Solana
In more detail
Deriving a PDA does not create an account: the address exists as soon as it is computed, but getAccountInfo returns null for it until a transaction actually creates the account. The derivation adds a bump seed so that the result falls off the ed25519 curve.
PDAs let programs own state at predictable addresses; associated token accounts are a widely used example.