Wallet & Keypair Management

The solana-keygen utility provides comprehensive keypair and wallet management for Harmonic Salsa. Use it to generate new keypairs, recover from seed phrases, and manage cryptographic identities.

Creating New Keypairs

Generate Random Keypair

Create a new keypair with a random seed phrase:

solana-keygen new --outfile ~/.config/solana/my-keypair.json

This generates:

A 12-word BIP39 seed phrase (mnemonic)
An Ed25519 keypair
A JSON file with the private key

Important: Save the seed phrase securely! It’s the only way to recover your keypair.

Generate Without Saving

Display seed phrase without writing to file:

solana-keygen new --no-outfile

Silent Mode

Generate without displaying seed phrase (useful for scripts):

solana-keygen new --outfile ~/keypair.json --silent

Custom Seed Phrase Length

Generate with different word counts:

# 12 words (default)
solana-keygen new --word-count 12

# 24 words (more secure)
solana-keygen new --word-count 24

# Supported: 12, 15, 18, 21, 24

BIP39 Passphrase

Add an extra passphrase for additional security:

# Will prompt for passphrase
solana-keygen new

# Skip passphrase
solana-keygen new --no-bip39-passphrase

Derivation Paths

Generate keypairs using BIP44 derivation paths:

# Default path: m/44'/501'/0'/0'
solana-keygen new --derivation-path "m/44'/501'/0'/0'"

# Custom path for multiple accounts
solana-keygen new --derivation-path "m/44'/501'/1'/0'"
solana-keygen new --derivation-path "m/44'/501'/2'/0'"

Recovering Keypairs

Recover from Seed Phrase

Recover a keypair from an existing seed phrase:

solana-keygen recover --outfile ~/.config/solana/recovered.json

You’ll be prompted to enter:

Your seed phrase (12-24 words)
Your passphrase (if used during generation)

Recover with Prompt URI

Use the prompt URI scheme:

solana-keygen recover prompt:// --outfile ~/keypair.json

Skip Validation

Recover without validating seed phrase (not recommended):

solana-keygen recover --skip-seed-phrase-validation

Viewing Public Keys

Display Pubkey from Keypair

solana-keygen pubkey ~/.config/solana/id.json

Output:

7gJvCYGLqW3j4WjxL8GkQWGHwj3kZqXbqN9XfqP3h2hA

Save Pubkey to File

solana-keygen pubkey ~/.config/solana/id.json --outfile pubkey.json

Display from Config

Show pubkey for configured keypair:

solana-keygen pubkey

BLS Public Key

Generate BLS public key for validator consensus:

solana-keygen bls_pubkey ~/.config/solana/validator-keypair.json

Verifying Keypairs

Verify Signature

Confirm a keypair can sign and verify:

solana-keygen verify <PUBKEY> ~/.config/solana/id.json

Example:

solana-keygen verify 7gJvCYGLqW3j4WjxL8GkQWGHwj3kZqXbqN9XfqP3h2hA ~/my-keypair.json

Output on success:

Verification for public key: 7gJvCYG...: Success

Grinding Vanity Addresses

Generate Vanity Keypairs

Create keypairs with custom prefixes or suffixes:

# Find keypair starting with "sol"
solana-keygen grind --starts-with sol:1

# Find keypair ending with "ana"
solana-keygen grind --ends-with ana:1

# Find keypair starting AND ending with specific strings
solana-keygen grind --starts-and-ends-with sol:ana:1

Generate Multiple Vanity Keys

# Generate 5 keypairs starting with "sol"
solana-keygen grind --starts-with sol:5

# Generate 3 keypairs ending with "dev"
solana-keygen grind --ends-with dev:3

Case-Insensitive Matching

solana-keygen grind --starts-with SOL:1 --ignore-case

Multi-threaded Grinding

# Use 8 threads for faster grinding
solana-keygen grind --starts-with sol:1 --num-threads 8

Grind with Mnemonic

Generate vanity addresses with recoverable seed phrases:

solana-keygen grind --starts-with sol:1 --use-mnemonic --no-bip39-passphrase

Note: Mnemonic grinding is significantly slower than raw keypair grinding.

Grind Without Saving

solana-keygen grind --starts-with sol:1 --use-mnemonic --no-outfile

Displays seed phrases without creating files.

Security Best Practices

File Permissions

Secure your keypair files:

# Set restrictive permissions
chmod 600 ~/.config/solana/*.json

# Verify permissions
ls -la ~/.config/solana/*.json

Backup Strategies

Seed Phrase: Write down and store in a secure location
Encrypted Backup: Encrypt keypair files before storing
Hardware Wallets: Use for high-value accounts
Multiple Copies: Store backups in separate secure locations

Encrypt Keypair Files

# Encrypt with GPG
gpg --symmetric --cipher-algo AES256 ~/.config/solana/id.json

# Decrypt when needed
gpg --decrypt ~/.config/solana/id.json.gpg > ~/id.json

Environment Variables

Avoid hardcoding keypair paths:

# Set default keypair location
export SOLANA_KEYPAIR=~/.config/solana/id.json

# Use in commands
solana balance

Hardware Wallet Integration

Use hardware wallets for production:

# Ledger hardware wallet
solana-keygen pubkey usb://ledger

# Sign with hardware wallet
solana transfer --from usb://ledger <RECIPIENT> 1.0

Multiple Keypair Management

Organize by Purpose

~/.config/solana/
  ├── id.json              # Default keypair
  ├── validator.json       # Validator identity
  ├── vote-account.json    # Vote account
  ├── stake-authority.json # Stake authority
  └── deploy.json          # Program deployment

Switch Between Keypairs

# Use specific keypair for single command
solana balance --keypair ~/.config/solana/deploy.json

# Set as default
solana config set --keypair ~/.config/solana/deploy.json

Keypair Formats

JSON Format

Standard keypair file format:

[123,45,67,89,...,234]

Seed Phrase Format

BIP39 mnemonic (human-readable):

witch collapse practice feed shame open despair creek road again ice least

Base58 Format

Not commonly used, but supported:

solana-keygen new --outfile /dev/stdout | base58

Troubleshooting

Invalid Keypair File

# Verify keypair format
solana-keygen verify <PUBKEY> <KEYPAIR>

# Check file permissions
ls -la ~/.config/solana/id.json

Lost Seed Phrase

If you lose your seed phrase and don’t have the JSON file, the keypair is unrecoverable. Always backup seed phrases securely.

Permission Denied

# Fix file permissions
chmod 600 ~/.config/solana/id.json

# Fix directory permissions
chmod 700 ~/.config/solana

Get Started

Validator

CLI Tools

Architecture

​Creating New Keypairs

​Generate Random Keypair

​Generate Without Saving

​Silent Mode

​Custom Seed Phrase Length

​BIP39 Passphrase

​Derivation Paths

​Recovering Keypairs

​Recover from Seed Phrase

​Recover with Prompt URI

​Skip Validation

​Viewing Public Keys

​Display Pubkey from Keypair

​Save Pubkey to File

​Display from Config

​BLS Public Key

​Verifying Keypairs

​Verify Signature

​Grinding Vanity Addresses

​Generate Vanity Keypairs

​Generate Multiple Vanity Keys

​Case-Insensitive Matching

​Multi-threaded Grinding

​Grind with Mnemonic

​Grind Without Saving

​Security Best Practices

​File Permissions

​Backup Strategies

​Encrypt Keypair Files

​Environment Variables

​Hardware Wallet Integration

​Multiple Keypair Management

​Organize by Purpose

​Switch Between Keypairs

​Keypair Formats

​JSON Format

​Seed Phrase Format

​Base58 Format

​Troubleshooting

​Invalid Keypair File

​Lost Seed Phrase

​Permission Denied

​Next Steps

Cluster Queries

Stake Management

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