How to Generate Buffer for Private Key

Question

I am a beginner in Ethereum development. I am using Web3 js 1.0 to build a simple node js application that sends ether from one wallet to another on Mainnet.

I am having problem in creating buffer from private key, keep getting this error-

Error: Expected private key to be an Uint8Array with length 32.

This is my code:

//Private keys
const key1 = "0xb7bxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx";

//Generate Byte Buffer for key
const buffer1 = Buffer.from(key1, "hex");

const rawTx = {
  nonce: web3.utils.toHex(count),
  to: addTo,
  value: web3.utils.toHex(bal - 10000000000 * 21000),
  gasLimit: web3.utils.toHex(21000),
  gasPrice: web3.utils.toHex(10000000000),
};

const txn = new Tx(rawTx);
txn.sign(buffer1);

const serialTx = txn.serialize();
const raw = "0x" + serialTx.toString("hex");

web3.eth.sendSignedTransaction(raw).on("transactionHash", (txHash) => {
  console.log("transactionHash:", txHash);
});

I read somewhere that you have to remove the 0x from the Private key before passing it to the Buffer method? Is it true?

Answer 1

If you change your code to this, it should do the trick.

const buffer1 = Buffer.from(key1.substring(2,66), "hex");

Answer 2

Try with the following code:

public function transfer(
    privateKey: string,
    fromAccount: string,
    toAccount: string,
    amount: string
  ) {
    const privateKeyBUF = Buffer.from(privateKey, 'hex');
    const contract = new this.web3.eth.Contract(
      [FunctionsAbi],
      [ContractAddress],
      { from: fromAccount }
    );

    amount = this.web3.utils.toHex(this.web3.utils.toWei(amount));
    return from(this.web3.eth.getTransactionCount(fromAccount)).pipe(
      switchMap((count) => {
        const rawTransaction = {
          from: fromAccount,
          gasPrice: this.web3.utils.toHex(20 * 1e9),
          gasLimit: this.web3.utils.toHex(210000),
          to: [ContractAddress],
          value: 0x0,
          data: contract.methods.transfer(toAccount, amount).encodeABI(),
          nonce: this.web3.utils.toHex(count),
        };

        const transaction = new Tx(rawTransaction, { chain: 'chain' });
        transaction.sign(privateKeyBUF);

        return from(
          this.web3.eth.sendSignedTransaction(
            '0x' + transaction.serialize().toString('hex')
          )
        );
      }),

      map((transaction) => {
        return transaction;
      })
    );
  }