MASP Key Management

This section will detail the commands to generate spending keys, viewing keys and payment addresses with namadaw.

For an explanation of the different types of keys and addresses, see the glossary.

Generating a spending key and viewing key

The first step before interacting with the MASP is to create a spending key. A spending key is loosely analogous to the private key you may be familiar with from transparent accounts, in the sense that it grants one the authority to spend tokens in the associated account (and must always be kept secret). Create a new spending key with:

namadaw gen --shielded --alias $SPENDING_KEY_ALIAS

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This command will also generate a corresponding Viewing Key sharing the same alias.

You will be prompted to provide an encryption passphrase. Once the key is created, your recovery mnemonic will be displayed in the terminal.

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WARNING: Keep your mnemonic and passphrase safe. Loss of either can result in you being locked out of your accounts with no chance of recovering your funds.

Displaying your spending key and viewing key

You can display your viewing key with:

namadaw list --shielded

You can also display your spending key (your spending key should always be kept private, so use caution when executing this command):

namadaw list --shielded --unsafe-show-secret --decrypt

Generating a payment address

Once you have created a spending key, it can be used to derive a payment address. A payment address begins with znam and is a public-facing address which you can share when you wish to receive tokens.

namadaw gen-payment-addr --alias $PAYMENT_ADDRESS_ALIAS --key $SPENDING_KEY_ALIAS

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It is possible (and recommended) to generate multiple payment addresses from the same spending key.

Displaying your payment addresses

You can display all payment addresses associated with your spending key(s) with:

namadaw list --shielded

Recovering an existing spending key from mnemonic

You can recover an existing spending key from your mnemonic and add it to your wallet with:

namadaw derive --alias $SPENDING_KEY_ALIAS --shielded

Adding an existing key or payment address to your wallet

If you know the raw value of a spending key, viewing key or payment address, you can add it to your wallet under an alias so you can more conveniently refer to it later.

namadaw add --alias $ALIAS --value $HEX_VALUE

where $HEX_VALUE is the hex value of a spending key, viewing key or payment address.

Removing a key/address

You can remove all keys/addresses associated with an alias from your wallet with:

namadaw remove --alias $ALIAS --do-it

Glossary Shielding Assets