External key management

🚧
Deprecation notice
Consortium networks have been deprecated. This guide is for historical reference.

By default, you can view your MultiChain wallet addresses and keys specific to the node that you deployed, provided that you are logged in as the same user with Chainstack. See View node access details.

You can use the default wallet addresses and key pairs for development and testing purposes.

If you are moving your MultiChain network to production, you are strongly recommended to use secure key management.

External key management assumes that you do not store the keys in a MultiChain wallet. Instead, you have the keys stowed away in a location that meets your security requirements.

This section will guide you through creating a key pair, issuing an asset, and signing the transaction without keeping the private key in any wallet.

You will call the MultiChain nodes running in the cloud. You can, however, do the transactions through a local node if you run a hybrid MultiChain network.

Get your node access and credentials. See View node access details.
Create a key pair using your node access details:
```
curl RPC_ENDPOINT -u "RPC_USER:RPC_PASSWORD" -d '{"method":"createkeypairs","params":[],"id":1}'
```
where
- RPC_ENDPOINT — your cloud MultiChain node RPC endpoint.
- RPC_USER — your cloud MultiChain node RPC username.
- RPC_PASSWORD — your cloud MultiChain node RPC password.
Example:
```
curl https://nd-123-456-789.p2pify.com -u "user-name:pass-word-pass-word-pass-word" -d '{"method":"createkeypairs","params":[],"id":1}'
```

Import the address to a MultiChain node:

curl RPC_ENDPOINT -u "RPC_USER:RPC_PASSWORD" -d '{"method":"importaddress","params":["IMPORT_ADDRESS","false"],"id":2}'

where IMPORT_ADDRESS — the address that you created at the previous step.

Example:

curl https://nd-123-456-789.p2pify.com -u "user-name:pass-word-pass-word-pass-word" -d '{"method":"importaddress","params":["12ABcdefWDoUk4W1R3DZk4jqKG6iw4Cm7habLjt","false"],"id":2}'

This will import the address to the MultiChain node without exposing the private key.

Grant the send and receive permissions to the imported address:

curl RPC_ENDPOINT -u "RPC_USER:RPC_PASSWORD" -d '{"method":"grant","params":["IMPORTED_ADDRESS","receive,send"],"id":3}'

Example:

curl https://nd-123-456-789.p2pify.com -u "user-name:pass-word-pass-word-pass-word" -d '{"method":"grant","params":["12ABcdefWDoUk4W1R3DZk4jqKG6iw4Cm7habLjt","receive,send"],"id":3}'

Issue an asset to the imported address. Issuing an asset at this step is for demonstration purposes, so that later you can send the asset with an external key signature.

curl RPC_ENDPOINT -u "RPC_USER:RPC_PASSWORD" -d '{"method":"issue","params":["IMPORT_ADDRESS","ASSET_NAME",100,0.001],"id":4}'

where ASSET_NAME — any name for the asset you are issuing.

Example:

curl https://nd-123-456-789.p2pify.com -u "user-name:pass-word-pass-word-pass-word" -d '{"method":"issue","params":["12ABcdefWDoUk4W1R3DZk4jqKG6iw4Cm7habLjt","token",100,0.001],"id":4}'

This will issue 100 units of the asset token.

Create a raw unsigned transaction. Create a raw unsigned transaction that will send units of the issued asset from your address to a different address.

curl RPC_ENDPOINT -u "RPC_USER:RPC_PASSWORD" -d '{"method":"createrawsendfrom","params":["IMPORT_ADDRESS",{"ADDRESS":{"ASSET_NAME":50}}],"id":5}'

where ADDRESS — any address existing on the MultiChain network.

Example:

curl https://nd-123-456-789.p2pify.com -u "user-name:pass-word-pass-word-pass-word" -d '{"method":"createrawsendfrom","params":["12ABcdefWDoUk4W1R3DZk4jqKG6iw4Cm7habLjt",{"1abc2PLVeVPF1CEkGSmuBtRScRAmKzVsLgaPf":{"token":50}}],"id":5}'

This will create a raw unsigned transaction to send 50 units of the asset token and will give you a hexadecimal transaction ID.

Sign the raw transaction. You will now use your private key to sign the transaction.

curl RPC_ENDPOINT -u "RPC_USER:RPC_PASSWORD" -d '{"method":"signrawtransaction","params":["TRANSACTION_HEX",[],["PRIVATE_KEY"]],"id":6}'

where

TRANSACTION_HEX — the hexadecimal transaction ID you received at the previous step.
PRIVATE_KEY — your private key from the imported address

Example:

curl https://nd-123-456-789.p2pify.com -u "user-name:pass-word-pass-word-pass-word" -d '{"method":"signrawtransaction","params":["0100000001745a346f8a3382b4245d13f7f2a698b761fca1376e60c5b560f35e77b1b565f40000000000ffffffff0200000000000000003776a91405315992cd4a3512c0444e4e2a748d4003f4999088ac1c73706b7161fca1376e60c5b560f35e77b1b565f480841e00000000007500000000000000003776a91408b22c67231a4fba1cbf6cc49062b16d1da4397388ac1c73706b7161fca1376e60c5b560f35e77b1b565f4006cdc02000000007500000000",[],["ABCDZZucTF76uTMxVV21GvWS94jiKTsj5HNJUPZKjYVq6sA3a1ZP5do3"]],"id":6}'

Send the signed transaction hexadecimal value. Now that your transaction is signed, broadcast it to the MultiChain network.

curl RPC_ENDPOINT -u "RPC_USER:RPC_PASSWORD" -d '{"method":"sendrawtransaction","params":["HEX_VALUE"],"id":7}'

where HEX_VALUE — the hexadecimal value you received at the previous step.

Example:

curl https://nd-123-456-789.p2pify.com -u "user-name:pass-word-pass-word-pass-word" -d '{"method":"sendrawtransaction","params":["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"],"id":7}'

You created and signed the transaction with your external private key.

🚧Deprecation notice

🚧
Deprecation notice