Get private key from solana wallet provider and convert it to a Keypair

[ysissoko78]

Hi

I want to use my solana private key retrieved with the following request:

    const solanaWallet = new SolanaWallet(provider)
    const connectionConfig = await solanaWallet.request({
        method: "solana_provider_config",
        params: [],
    });
    const privateKey = await provider.request({
        method: "solanaPrivateKey"
    });

What is the format of the private key? it should be base58 encoded? when i try to decode it to base58, i have the following error:

Non-base58 character

What is the format of the retrieved private key? is it possible to convert it to a keypair with the following instruction:

Keypair.fromSecretKey(privateKey);

Regards,

[vjgee]

@ysissoko78 Thanks for your recent post.

@ysissoko78

What is the format of the private key?

The format is Base58

To convert a base58 Solana private key into a key pair in TypeScript, you can use the @solana/web3.js library and follow this approach:

import { Keypair } from '@solana/web3.js';
import bs58 from 'bs58';

function base58ToKeypair(base58PrivateKey: string): Keypair {
  try {
    const privateKeyBuffer = bs58.decode(base58PrivateKey);
    return Keypair.fromSecretKey(privateKeyBuffer);
  } catch (error) {
    throw new Error("Invalid base58 private key.");
  }
}

// Example usage
const base58PrivateKey = "your_base58_private_key_here"; // Replace with actual base58 private key
const keypair = base58ToKeypair(base58PrivateKey);
console.log(`Public Key: ${keypair.publicKey.toBase58()}`); //prints the base58-encoded public key
console.log(`Private Key (Base58): ${keypair.secretKey.toBase58()}`); // prints the base58-encoded private key

You can also take a look at our example:

You can get the private key from here:

const privateKey = await rpc.getPrivateKey();

and here the wallet address

const solana_address = await solanaWallet.requestAccounts();

[ysissoko78]

Thanks for your reply,

The getPrivateKey method is from your class EthereumRpc, it is not working for Solana (because this is a different rpc provider for solana). I am using the following request to get the solana private key:

  const privateKey = await provider.request({
        method: "solanaPrivateKey"
    });

I am getting a 128 bytes length string but not a 32 bytes base58 encoded string (i have this “Non-base58 character” error while trying to convert it). Can you clarify what is this 128 bytes length string?

[vjgee]

I will check with our Dev team and get back with an update.

[vjgee]

@ysissoko78

128 bytes length string

@ysissoko78 I believe this is a 128-byte hexadecimal string. Can you try encoding this to Base58 and then decode it:

import bs58 from "bs58";

const base58privatekey= bs58.encode(Buffer.from("enter private key", "hex"))

[ysissoko78]

The following code works for me:

Keypair.fromSecret(Buffer.from("enter private key", "hex"))

It was just encoded in hex format.

Thanks a lot!