How to convert HEX public key into SS58

Question

I have a public key in HEX into. How do I get the SS58 representation of it? Is there a command line tool?

Answer 1

The easiest way is to use the subkey tool. You can install it from the substrate repo.

Then, you can use:

$ subkey inspect --public 0xec7c1c10c73a2d90c6a4fc92a5212caaff849a65193db3a2b2aa1ffdadb99f06

Network ID/version: substrate
  Public key (hex):   0xec7c1c10c73a2d90c6a4fc92a5212caaff849a65193db3a2b2aa1ffdadb99f06
  Account ID:         0xec7c1c10c73a2d90c6a4fc92a5212caaff849a65193db3a2b2aa1ffdadb99f06
  Public key (SS58):  5HQn2URwTz6CPsZzbtPzm93KEza881uQ92rLRhtRzSLoA7ws
  SS58 Address:       5HQn2URwTz6CPsZzbtPzm93KEza881uQ92rLRhtRzSLoA7ws

Be aware, that the SS58 depends on the network, so it might be possible that you need to specify it via the --network command line argument.

Answer 2

Subalfred is another option now.

It provides more detail about the key.

It could:

• show the SS58 prefix
• detect if it is a pallet account
• detect if it is a paraid
• show all networks' address
• accept multiple type of input, public key/address/id

subalfred key --show-prefix --list-all 0x6d6f646c70792f74727372790000000000000000000000000000000000000000
public-key 0x6d6f646c70792f74727372790000000000000000000000000000000000000000 PalletId(py/trsry)
BareEd25519               3 LqU5wxzkNSKtMmvyXtM6vimZUPuH1mhTaTHm9L1h4BA6stP
BareSecp256k1            43 5LKrRdd881RQ8hxVCq5JCyMmQt7fULxX1CcYNV44DFxfMrsn
BareSr25519               1 9G9ZxtByngsaEy1AU8JM8BvGW7KAeWf5hM2Xn3QmLzBY97T
DICO                     53 6LCT1Z39xvAfhJ18G9sXyz21sjYc2BFitc9rXKV4qouYBA7Z
Eggnet                 4006 oVPveLKWsFc9HzQiHqDv81ecYWEH8EyHSGDCwMNVNTJeQQxFU
ICE                    2208 npP7jGQpDyrB6vTXuh3wqNJdPoWN9nK5vWSbbo82eQy9kNdXb
KICO                     52 6EQnkZVkadHwYEbfMczWc5kbEFQJxzdChfbiudqmNxK3tnhx
SNOW                   2207 nhzjWivARPECavheDiyeKCdcCSTDLGancSF9CRNsNnF6YMzYq
Turing                 2114 cU77QDyYhsYaVKKm8p5Ywh4gygQ59bm2dhsoiZB1JtoxHGyQR
acala                    10 23M5ttkpSQZQymcBKG3WkEak5sPxfJBLnALD4vq7w3La53HJ
...

Answer 3

I recommend using Shawn Tabrizi Substrate-js utilities

or either coding using the hex_literal crate.

pub const Bob: AccountId = AccountId::from(
    hex_literal::hex!("8eaf04151687736326c9fea17e25fc5287613693c912909cb226aa4794f26a48")
);

However, while coding in Substrate, I advice trying to migrate your logic directly to ss58 instead of working with hex keys. Will make your days easier. e.g. below:

pub const Bob: AccountId = AccountId::from_ss58check("5FHneW46xGXgs5mUiveU4sbTyGBzmstUspZC92UhjJM694ty").unwrap();