Hierarchical Deterministic Key Derivation for the Internet Computer

Keysmith lets you derive cryptographic keys and identifiers for the Internet Computer. Among these identifiers includes an account identifier, which indicates the source or destination of an ICP token transfer. Keysmith does not sign or send messages to the Internet Computer. Hence, Keysmith does not facilitate ICP token transfer, but rather only ICP token custody. For use cases other than custody, such as payments, consider using Keysmith in conjunction with other software, such as the DFINITY Canister SDK.

Download the latest tarball here.

If you want to verify the authenticity of the tarball, then please also download the supplementary SHA256.SIG and SHA256.SUM files, as well as my public key, which you can find here.

Verify the SHA256 checksum of the tarball.

grep "$(openssl dgst -sha256 keysmith-*.tar.gz)" SHA256.SUM

Verify the signature on the tarball.

openssl dgst -sha256 -verify public.key -signature SHA256.SIG SHA256.SUM

The command above should display the following output.

Verified OK

Extract the executable from the tarball.

tar -f keysmith-*.tar.gz -x 

Add the executable to your PATH.

sudo install -d /usr/local/bin
sudo install keysmith /usr/local/bin

Below is list of commands and their behavior.

• account prints your account identifier.
• generate generates your mnemonic seed.
• legacy-address prints your legacy address.
• principal prints your principal identifier.
• private-key derives your private key.
• public-key prints your public key.
• version prints the version number.
• x-public-key prints your extended public key.

The DFINITY Canister SDK can sign and send messages to the Internet Computer. Versions 0.7.0-beta.6 and greater provide a convenient ledger command that facilitates ICP token transfer. Consider the workflow below.

keysmith generate # Generate your mnemonic seed.
keysmith private-key # Derive your private key.
DFX_VERSION=0.7.0-beta.6 sh -ci "$(curl -fsSL https://sdk.dfinity.org/install.sh)" # Install dfx.
echo {} > dfx.json # Create an empty project.
dfx identity import alternate identity.pem # Import your private key.
dfx identity use alternate # Use your private key to sign messages.
dfx ledger account-id # Print your account identifier.
dfx ledger --network=https://ic0.app balance # Check your balance.
dfx ledger --network=https://ic0.app transfer \ # Send me some tokens.
    --amount=1.23456789 \ # ICP is divisible by 10^(-8) just like Bitcoin.
    --memo=244837814094590 \ # Include a numeric memo.
    --to=89e99f79ec4d81f77a6c8cb243e536e7b3244d7294fb803bcd77b3dd4e32ae36