cardano serialization lib - Multiple addresses and stake keys

Question

I was able to generate a single address following the guide. My question is regarding stake key. Is it necessary to derive a new stake key for each new address or can you just increment .derive(n + 1) and use the same stake key?

const utxoPubKey = accountKey
  .derive(0) // external
  .derive(0)
  .to_public();

const stakeKey = accountKey
  .derive(2) // chimeric
  .derive(0)
  .to_public();

const baseAddr = CardanoWasm.BaseAddress.new(
  CardanoWasm.NetworkInfo.mainnet().network_id(),
  CardanoWasm.StakeCredential.from_keyhash(utxoPubKey.to_raw_key().hash()),
  CardanoWasm.StakeCredential.from_keyhash(stakeKey.to_raw_key().hash()),
);

Many thanks!

Answer 1

Every account should only use 1 stake key, and it resides within m/1852H/1815H/0H/2/0. Every new address that you generate should use the same stake key. This is so that when you're staking your wallet, it can track your balance across different payment addresses that use the same stake key.

Reference to Address Derivation documentation, under the Path Level