Private Key Account
A Private Key Account is an interface that has the ability to sign transactions and messages with a given private key.
INFO
viem internally uses @noble/curves, an audited implementation of secp256k1, for our private key & signing implementation.
Import
ts
import { privateKeyToAccount } from 'viem/accounts'import { privateKeyToAccount } from 'viem/accounts'Usage
To initialize a Private Key Account, you will need to pass a private key to privateKeyToAccount:
ts
import { createWalletClient, http } from 'viem'
import { privateKeyToAccount } from 'viem/accounts'
import { mainnet } from 'viem/chains'
const account = privateKeyToAccount('0xac0974bec39a17e36ba4a6b4d238ff944bacb478cbed5efcae784d7bf4f2ff80')
const client = createWalletClient({
account,
chain: mainnet,
transport: http()
})import { createWalletClient, http } from 'viem'
import { privateKeyToAccount } from 'viem/accounts'
import { mainnet } from 'viem/chains'
const account = privateKeyToAccount('0xac0974bec39a17e36ba4a6b4d238ff944bacb478cbed5efcae784d7bf4f2ff80')
const client = createWalletClient({
account,
chain: mainnet,
transport: http()
})Note: the above is a valid private key, but it is not a "real" private key. Please do not use it for anything other than testing.
Generating Private Keys
You can generate a random private key using the generatePrivateKey function:
ts
import { generatePrivateKey } from 'viem/accounts'
const privateKey = generatePrivateKey()import { generatePrivateKey } from 'viem/accounts'
const privateKey = generatePrivateKey()Parameters
privateKey
- Type:
Hex
The private key to use for the Account.
Returns
address
The address of the Account.
ts
const account = privateKeyToAccount('0xac0974bec39a17e36ba4a6b4d238ff944bacb478cbed5efcae784d7bf4f2ff80')
account.address
// '0xf39fd6e51aad88f6f4ce6ab8827279cfffb92266'const account = privateKeyToAccount('0xac0974bec39a17e36ba4a6b4d238ff944bacb478cbed5efcae784d7bf4f2ff80')
account.address
// '0xf39fd6e51aad88f6f4ce6ab8827279cfffb92266'signMessage
Calculates an Ethereum-specific signature in EIP-191 format: keccak256("\x19Ethereum Signed Message:\n" + len(message) + message)).
ts
const account = privateKeyToAccount('0xac0974bec39a17e36ba4a6b4d238ff944bacb478cbed5efcae784d7bf4f2ff80')
account.signMessage({ message: 'Hello World' })
// '0x7b2274797065223a226d657373616765222c226d657373616765223a2248656c6c6f20576f726c64227d'const account = privateKeyToAccount('0xac0974bec39a17e36ba4a6b4d238ff944bacb478cbed5efcae784d7bf4f2ff80')
account.signMessage({ message: 'Hello World' })
// '0x7b2274797065223a226d657373616765222c226d657373616765223a2248656c6c6f20576f726c64227d'