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Manage accounts

This page details some of the ways you can create and maintain your Entropy accounts.

CLI​

The CLI has a built-in account manager. This is useful for running quick, one-time transactions. The CLI account manager can also be helpful for testing purposes.

You need to have the Entropy CLI installed. Take a look at the CLI page for details on how to install the CLI.

Create an account​

  1. Start the CLI by running yarn start within your local copy of the entropyxyz/cli repository.

  2. Select Manage Accounts.

  3. Select New.

  4. Type n and press ENTER when asked Would you like to import a key?:

    ? Would you like to import a key? n

  5. Enter the name of your new account. The CLI will output some information about it:

    New account:
    {
            name: Ludleth
            address: 5HMnksPMRPqsDqyCj31VoQFgpiswsr12bk2YTyfMUEKCm2bv
    }

  6. Type Y and press ENTER to go back to the main menu.

Import an account​

You can import an account by the seed for the account. Most Substrate-based wallets allow you to export your account information.

  1. Start the CLI by running yarn start within your local copy of the entropyxyz/cli repository.

  2. Select Manage Accounts.

  3. Select New.

  4. Type y and press ENTER when asked Would you like to import a key?:

    ? Would you like to import a key? y

  5. Enter your seed.

  6. If you specified a path when originally creating the account you want to import, enter it when prompted:

    path: ____

  7. Enter a name for the account you want to import. The CLI will output some information about your new account:

    New account:
    {
            name: Hawkwood
            address: 5FLSigC9HGRKVhB9FiEo4Y3koPsNmBmLJbpXg2mp1hXcS59Y
            type: seed
    }

  8. Type Y and press ENTER to go back to the main menu.

Export an account​

If you need to export an account that you created in the CLI, follow these steps:

  1. Open your ~/.entropy-cli.config file in a text editor. It should look something like:

    {
        "accounts": [
        {
            "name": "Andre",
                "address": "5CrFp9txcb5UECpNKsD6DTBsG4cj1z58DA43YikSVeeJqXJR",
                "data": {
                    "debug": true,
                    "seed": "0xe7f6d671e3db7b85a8e3e7da1ffd348b6334f7df383604db0d6e12ab8d58430e",
                    "admin": {
                        "address": "5CrFp9txcb5UECpNKsD6DTBsG4cj1z58DA43YikSVeeJqXJR",
                        "type": "registration",
                        "verifyingKeys": [],
                        "userContext": "ADMIN_KEY",
                        "seed": "0xe7f6d671e3db7b85a8e3e7da1ffd348b6334f7df383604db0d6e12ab8d58430e",
                        "path": "",
                        "pair": {
                            "address": "5CrFp9txcb5UECpNKsD6DTBsG4cj1z58DA43YikSVeeJqXJR",
                            "addressRaw": {
                                "0": 34,
                                "1": 189,
                                "2": 158,

    ...

  2. The critical part of this JSON object is the seed element:

    "seed": "0xe7f6d671e3db7b85a8e3e7da1ffd348b6334f7df383604db0d6e12ab8d58430e",

    You can use this seed to import your key into another wallet or import it back into the Entropy CLI using the Import function.

  3. All the accounts created in the CLI are stored in the ~/.entropy-cli.config file. Make sure to export the specific account you need.

Subkey​

Subkey is a command line utility created by Parity Technologies and allows generating and restoring keys for Substrate-based chains, such as Entropy. It provides a few sub-commands to generate keys, check keys, sign messages, verify messages,

Install Subkey​

The easiest way to start using Subkey is to use the Docker image supplied by Parity. This method requires that you have Docker installed.

docker run -it --pull=always docker.io/parity/subkey:latest

This should output something like:

latest: Pulling from parity/subkey
Digest: sha256:ad9097c83147efde6c79fc913266961d813c1ed451270b72284c0cf80c2092b6
Status: Image is up to date for parity/subkey:latest
WARNING: The requested image's platform (linux/amd64) does not match the detected host platform (linux/arm64/v8) and no specific platform was requested
Utility for generating and restoring with Substrate keys

Usage: subkey <COMMAND>

Commands:
  generate-node-key  Generate a random node key, write it to a file or stdout and write the corresponding peer-id to stderr
  generate           Generate a random account
  inspect            Gets a public key and a SS58 address from the provided Secret URI
  inspect-node-key   Load a node key from a file or stdin and print the corresponding peer-id
  sign               Sign a message, with a given (secret) key
  vanity             Generate a seed that provides a vanity address
  verify             Verify a signature for a message, provided on STDIN, with a given (public or secret) key
  help               Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

Options:
  -h, --help     Print help
  -V, --version  Print version

You are now ready to use Subkey.

Install with Cargo

If you'd prefer to install Subkey using Rust's Cargo framework, check out the official Subkey documentation

Create an account​

You can use the generate command against Subkey to generate a new account. Assuming you have the latest Subkey Docker image ready, run the following:

docker run -it --pull=always docker.io/parity/subkey:latest generate

This should output something like:

Secret phrase `hotel forest jar hover kite book view eight stuff angle legend defense` is account:
  Secret seed:      0xa05c75731970cc7868a2fb7cb577353cd5b31f62dccced92c441acd8fee0c92d
  Public key (hex): 0xfec70cfbf1977c6965b5af10a4534a6a35d548eb14580594d0bc543286892515
  Account ID:       0xfec70cfbf1977c6965b5af10a4534a6a35d548eb14580594d0bc543286892515
  SS58 Address:     5Hpm9fq3W3dQgwWpAwDS2ZHKAdnk86QRCu7iX4GnmDxycrte

You can use these credentials to interact with the Entropy network.