[Ethereum] Should I always put 0x at the start of Ethereum addresses

accountsaddresses

Should I always put 0x at the start of Ethereum addresses?
Sending ether to addresses without 0x seem to work perfectly fine.

when sending to an address, do you include the "0x" before the rest of
the number?

The address in my coinbase starts with 0x, then the rest of the
receiving address. However my wallet file i created with geth doesn't
have the 0x in the name.

Source

Best Answer

Yes but the 0x should already be there. You should not be typing addresses in manually because they currently do not have checksums and mistakes can be costly: more details here specifically be "careful to always include the "0x" on the front of the raw ones (which you should be doing anyways)".

When transferring any large amounts, don't forget to test with a small amount first. Similarly, if you are copying+pasting and the 0x isn't already there (maybe some blockchain explorers don't have the 0x), be careful if you add the "0x".

With Ethereum ICAP addresses, the 0x should not be added.

Related Solutions

[Ethereum] Convert an eth key to a geth key

It's possible but not recommended and therefore a not documented feature.

Get the UUID of the account:

 ~ $ ethkey listbare
8766c082-432f-5548-608c-6eec600757f9

Display the private key:

 ~ $ ethkey inspectbare --show-me-the-secret 8766c082-432f-5548-608c-6eec600757f9
Enter passphrase for key 8766c082-432f-5548-608c-6eec600757f9: 
Key 8766c082-432f-5548-608c-6eec600757f9:
  ICAP: XE871TJEHQTCYKGJ2ETMECEX4AVZLMG4MZ
  Raw hex: 006ed403807ae87b9f958f25c33862927ba1b57b
  Secret: 7b275146cbb8da08xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxe10da42934fa2f01

Import the plain key into geth:

 ~ $ echo 7b275146cbb8da08xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxe10da42934fa2f01 > delete-me.prv
 ~ $ geth account import delete-me.prv 
Your new account is locked with a password. Please give a password. Do not forget this password.
Passphrase: 
Repeat passphrase: 
Address: {006ed403807ae87b9f958f25c33862927ba1b57b}

Don't forget to remove the plain key from disk again:
```
 ~ $ rm -f delete-me.prv 
```

After some digging, I found a comment by Stephan Tual, stating it is designed to prevent you from extracting the (unencrypted) private keys, and never exposes them to the user. The idea is that this will remove the risk of leaving the keys on a USB stick for example.

The best would be to generate new keys in geth and simply transfer the funds to the new account.

[Ethereum] Startup script for creating an account and running geth

You could use this python script. It has 4 commands and create a private blockchain in few seconds:

init: this command create an account and a genesis with ethers for this account
start: start the blockchain and mine on 1 thread.
stop: stop (usefull when you don't need your blockchain)
destroy: to reset and create a new blockchain

Have Fun

https://github.com/regispietra/CreatePrivateEthereum

If you have idea to improve it, contact us.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Ethereum] Convert an eth key to a geth key

[Ethereum] Startup script for creating an account and running geth

Related Topic