Retrieving the private/ public key with web3js for a specific wallet provided by truffle/hdwallet-provider

Question

I can't find a way to retrieve the private key / public key / public address for a web3 account loaded via a provider. I have tried the web3.eth.accounts command but I am not getting the private key / public key / public address .

const web3 = new Web3(provider);
web3.eth.accounts

In more details, I would like to have a HD wallet for receiving ethers on different public keys (and later selling them) Following the advice in the doc, I am using truffle/hdwallet-provider for the HD wallet. So now I am trying to retrieve the private key, the public key and possibly the public address via web3js for the provider created via truffle/hdwallet-provider wallet

This is my code which I run several time each time in a new node console in a cmd.

Before starting the node console, I start a cmd with geth --rpc --rpcport 8545 while internet is turned off so that I don't have to download/sync the blockchain

const mnemonicPhrase = 'some words ... '

const HDWalletProvider = require("@truffle/hdwallet-provider");
Web3 = require('web3');


provider = new HDWalletProvider({
  mnemonic: mnemonicPhrase,
  providerOrUrl: "http://localhost:8545",
  numberOfAddresses: 1,
  shareNonce: true,
  derivationPath: "m/44'/0'/0'/0/"
});

const web3 = new Web3(provider);
web3.eth.accounts

There should be a way to retrieve the private/public key via web3.eth.accounts but I am only getting a single address

Thanks a lof for your help!

• Operating System: windows
• Ethereum client:
• Truffle version (truffle version): @truffle/[email protected] ([email protected])
• node version (node --version): v14.16.1
• npm version (npm --version): 6.14.12

Answer 1

hd-wallet stores all keys inside wallet variable, you can access then by following example.

provider = new HDWalletProvider({
  mnemonic: mnemonicPhrase,
  providerOrUrl: "http://localhost:8545",
  numberOfAddresses: 2,
  shareNonce: true,
  derivationPath: "m/44'/0'/0'/0/"
});
const web3 = new Web3(provider);
const wallets = provider.wallets;
var accounts = [];
for (const wallet in wallets) {
  let account = wallets[wallet];
  accounts.push({
    privateKey: account.privateKey.toString("hex"),
    publicKey: account.publicKey.toString("hex"),
    publicAddress: wallet,
  });
}

Result

[
  {
    privateKey: '8bdde4f02d6d6736bebd8s277ec89893be7be4c02e9ad5da38a8fca619986311',
    publicKey: '0414351013efd92a4aa932443548160bdeb1d56553efe5c50f8a75342ea2a71a96a12b5000a4b4ad3fe51d2075142cf8d7dce51a1a17b93eee447389ba0fc136d8',
    publicAddress: '0xE839836eC6Ef7Fac9f52e460B0A9DBD9342D806F'
  },
  {
    privateKey: '1745940f309220276d2e974415daf7ad08ca172ef3922bd241327b9cbc866f32',
    publicKey: '04ca9c29801acc74b5a9925efc47b590e1807f68c79eecacdc1f1c4e0e1b3af4717537f0ac7dbaa79569a4382943e03f8149f96a3198b18ce58593e132f399b659',
    publicAddress: '0xdB5C44A94705664904c2dB120A61345bEf76027e'
  },
]

Answer 2

Sorry, web3 does not retrieve private/public keys

However, you can generate an account object that contains a private/public key.

web3.eth.accounts.create();
> {
address: "0xb8CE9ab6943e0eCED004cDe8e3bBed6568B2Fa01",
privateKey: "0x348ce564d427a3311b6536bbcff9390d69395b06ed6c486954e971d960fe8709",
signTransaction: function(tx){...},
sign: function(data){...},
encrypt: function(password){...}

}