Managing Keys

Iron Fish keys are pieces of data which can be used to encrypt and decrypt data. A wallet is a collection of many accounts, and an account holds private keys which enable users to view transaction details and transfer assets to other addresses.

See more in the glossary

Create an Account #

In order to create an account for your wallet, run the following:

ironfish wallet:create

The CLI will prompt you for a new account name and give you the public address:

Enter the name of the account: newaccount
Creating account newaccount
Account newaccount created with public address 986844f9f4b77e1c44583a97f190de4f97c5df58412abe1b3fdf5d294015a59e
Run "ironfish wallet:use newaccount" to set the account as default
✨  Done in 3.19s.

Spending Keys and Addresses #

The Iron Fish Spending Key is a random seed which is used to derive other keys in an account. Each Spending Key maps to one single public address.

Keeping Keys Safe #

Your private keys control your assets and allow you to interact with your accounts. There is a common phrase in the crypto industry: “Not your keys, not your crypto.” It’s highly recommended to secure your keys and keep them safe.

Note: Iron Fish wallets currently do not support key encryption.

There are several options to secure your keys.

Offline USB Drive #

Add your keys to an encrypted hard-drive, and ensure that device does not connect to an online machine.

Cryptosteel #

There are stainless steel cards available for purchase online which can store arbitrary characters (ex. mnemonic phrases). Many of these are fireproof and waterproof.

Paper Wallet #

If you do not want to spend a lot of money, writing down keys on a piece of paper stored in a fireproof and waterproof safe is a good backup option.

Distribute Chunks #

Take portions of your mnemonic phrase and store them in different locations.

Exporting an Account #

To export your account, run the following:

ironfish wallet:export <account>

Copy the output from this command:

ironfishaccount0000010....................................................................................fryk

Importing an Account #

To import an account on a new node or wallet, run the following using the output from an export:

ironfish wallet:import ironfishaccount0000010....................................................................................fryk

The output will confirm whether or not the account was successfully imported:

Account test imported.
Run "ironfish wallet:use test" to set the account as default
✨  Done in 2.50s.

View-Only Wallets #

If you’d like to monitor transactions related to an account without ability to send transactions, you can use a view-only keys.

Export View-Only Key #

Run the following to export a view-only key:

ironfish wallet:export --viewonly <account>

Copy the output from this command:

ironfishaccount0000010....................................................................................

Import View-Only Key #

Run the following to import the view-only key:

ironfish wallet:import ironfishaccount0000010......

The node which imports this account can now view all related transactions but won’t be able to spend any notes.