Error: invalid address during getBalance and send Raw Transaction

Question

Im using web3.js to retrieve the balance for the main account on my geth server

I set:

  let provider = new web3.providers.HttpProvider(ethereumNode)
  web3.setProvider(provider)

  if (!web3.isConnected()) {
    console.error('Ethereum - no conection to RPC server')
  } else {
    // is connected
    console.log('Ethereum - connected to RPC server')
  }


web3.eth.defaultAccount = from // from is my account on geth

// When goes to this line I get  Error: invalid address 
console.log("balance ", web3.eth.getBalance()) 

Besides this, I m trying to broadcast a raw transaction where it gets the same error

Error: invalid address

however If I run the same raw transaction on https://ropsten.etherscan.io/pushTx it works fine.

any ideas what is happening? I have the feeling is a problem on my geth server.

error stack on getBalance()

 Error: invalid address
     at inputAddressFormatter (.../node_modules/web3/lib/web3/formatters.js:271:11)
    at .../node_modules/web3/lib/web3/method.js:89:28
    at Array.map (native)
    at Method.formatInput (.../node_modules/web3/lib/web3/method.js:88:32)
    at Method.toPayload (.../node_modules/web3/lib/web3/method.js:114:23)
    at Eth.send [as getBalance] (.../node_modules/web3/lib/web3/method.js:139:30)
    at .../server/src/batches/export2contract.js:80:40
    at writeContract (.../server/src/batches/export2contract.js:61:10)
    at .../server/src/batches/export2contract.js:190:5
    at Array.forEach (native)

Error stack on sendTransaction:

   Error: invalid address
    at inputAddressFormatter (.../node_modules/web3/lib/web3/formatters.js:271:11)
    at inputTransactionFormatter (.../node_modules/web3/lib/web3/formatters.js:97:20)
    at .../node_modules/web3/lib/web3/method.js:89:28
    at Array.map (native)
    at Method.formatInput (.../node_modules/web3/lib/web3/method.js:88:32)
    at Method.toPayload (.../node_modules/web3/lib/web3/method.js:114:23)
    at Eth.send [as sendTransaction] (.../node_modules/web3/lib/web3/method.js:139:30)
    at .../server/src/batches/export2contract.js:135:32
    at writeContract (.../server/src/batches/export2contract.js:61:10)
    at .../server/src/batches/export2contract.js:190:5

Answer 1

It looks like from is not a valid address.

Looking at the stacktrace, in web3's formatters.js

var inputAddressFormatter = function (address) {
    var iban = new Iban(address);
    if (iban.isValid() && iban.isDirect()) {
        return '0x' + iban.address();
    } else if (utils.isStrictAddress(address)) {
        return address;
    } else if (utils.isAddress(address)) {
        return '0x' + address;
    }
    throw new Error('invalid address');
};

line 271 is "utils.isAddress(address)" and utils can be found here.

You might want to try calling web3.isAddress(from) and seeing if it validates.