Generating actor/account from Pub Key

An actor (which is equivalent to a FIO account name) is required on all signed calls. The actor is generated by hashing the FIO Public Key.

Using the API

You can use /get_actor API method to convert FIO Public Key to actor.

Using clio

The following clio command will convert the FIO Public Key to actor:

clio convert fiokey_to_account FIO8VHb3sQ52KqjjLfGAyy31E6dAZv9Y8Mo4KsJTmyNEhXZGvG7Zg

Custom code

The following custom code describes how exactly FIO Public Key is converted to account.

Step 1

Remove FIO prefix from FIO Public Key.

  • Example:
    • FIO6cDpi7vPnvRwMEdXtLnAmFwygaQ8CzD7vqKLBJ2GfgtHBQ4PPy
    • becomes 6cDpi7vPnvRwMEdXtLnAmFwygaQ8CzD7vqKLBJ2GfgtHBQ4PPy

Step 2

Perform Base58 decode operation on trimmed FIO Public Key from Step 1 and run through the shorten_key function:


  #include <iostream>
  #include <string>
  #include <sstream>
  #include "assert.h"
  
  // Alphabet map for Base58 encoding example
  const char * const ALPHABET =
      "123456789ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijkmnopqrstuvwxyz";
  const char ALPHABET_MAP[128] = {
      -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
      -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
      -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
      -1,  0,  1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7,  8, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
      -1,  9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, -1, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, -1,
      22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1,
      -1, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, -1, 44, 45, 46,
      47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1
  };
    
  // result must be declared (for the worst case): char result[len * 2];
  int DecodeBase58(const char *str, int len, unsigned char *result) {
      result[0] = 0;
      int resultlen = 1;
      for (int i = 0; i < len; i++) {
          unsigned int carry = (unsigned int) ALPHABET_MAP[(unsigned char)str[i]];
          for (int j = 0; j < resultlen; j++) {
              carry += (unsigned int) (result[j]) * 58;
              result[j] = (unsigned char) (carry & 0xff);
              carry >>= 8;
          }
          while (carry > 0) {
              result[resultlen++] = (unsigned int) (carry & 0xff);
              carry >>= 8;
          }
      }
    
      for (int i = 0; i < len && str[i] == '1'; i++)
          result[resultlen++] = 0;
    
      for (int i = resultlen - 1, z = (resultlen >> 1) + (resultlen & 1);
          i >= z; i--) {
          int k = result[i];
          result[i] = result[resultlen - i - 1];
          result[resultlen - i - 1] = k;
      }
      return resultlen;
  }
  
  uint64_t shorten_key(const unsigned char* key) {
    uint64_t res = 0;
    int done = 0;
    int i = 1;  // Ignore key head
    int len = 0;
    while (len <= 12) {
      assert(i<33); // Means the key has > 20 bytes with trailing zeroes...
    
      auto trimmed_char = uint64_t(key[i] & (len == 12 ? 0x0f : 0x1f));
      if (trimmed_char == 0) { i++; continue; }  // Skip a zero and move to next
    
      auto shuffle = len == 12 ? 0 : 5*(12-len)-1;
      res |= trimmed_char << shuffle;
    
      len++; i++;
    }
    return res;
  }
    
    
  int main() {
    std::string pubkey("6cDpi7vPnvRwMEdXtLnAmFwygaQ8CzD7vqKLBJ2GfgtHBQ4PPy");
    unsigned char* pub_key_bytes = new unsigned char[37];
    DecodeBase58(pubkey.c_str(), pubkey.length(), pub_key_bytes);
    uint64_t result = shorten_key(pub_key_bytes);
    std::cout<<result<<std::endl;
    
    return 0;
  }

  • Example:
    • 6cDpi7vPnvRwMEdXtLnAmFwygaQ8CzD7vqKLBJ2GfgtHBQ4PPy
    • becomes 1518832697283783336

Step 3

Convert unsigned long int from Step 2 and use it to instantiate a name object, similar to the one defined below:


  #include <iostream>
  #include <string>
  #include <sstream>
  #include <cstdlib>
  
  using namespace std;
  
  struct name {
    uint64_t value = 0;
    bool empty()const { return 0 == value; }
    bool good()const  { return !empty();   }
    
    name( const string& str ) { set( str.c_str() ); }
    
    void set( const char* str );
    
    template<typename T>
    name( T v ):value(v){}
    name(){}
    
    explicit operator string()const;
    
    string to_string() const { return string(*this); }
    
    name& operator=( uint64_t v ) {
      value = v;
      return *this;
    }
    
    name& operator=( const string& n ) {
      value = name(n).value;
      return *this;
    }
    
    friend std::ostream& operator << ( std::ostream& out, const name& n ) {
      return out << string(n);
    }
    
    
    friend bool operator == ( const name& a, const name& b ) { return a.value == b.value; }
    friend bool operator == ( const name& a, uint64_t b ) { return a.value == b; }
    
    operator bool()const            { return value; }
    operator uint64_t()const        { return value; }
  };
    
    
  name::operator string()const {
    static const char* charmap = ".12345abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";
    
    string str(13,'.'); //We are forcing the string to be 13 characters
    
    uint64_t tmp = value;
    for( uint32_t i = 0; i <= 12; i++ ) {
      char c = charmap[tmp & (i == 0 ? 0x0f : 0x1f)];
      str[12-i] = c;
      tmp >>= (i == 0 ? 4 : 5);
    }
    
    return str;
  }
    
  int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
    
    uint64_t hash = 1518832697283783336U; //Unsigned long long integer from Step 2
    std::stringstream fulladdress;
    
    //Important step, instantiate the name object using a hash, result is stored in fulladdress stringstream in this example
    fulladdress << name(hash);
    
    //Output resulting address without the 13th character
    std::cout << fulladdress.str() << std::endl;
    
    return 0;
  }

  • Example:
    • 1518832697283783336
    • becomes 2odzomo2v4pec

Step 4

The result is 13 characters in length, FIO requires an address of 12 characters. Shorten the address as needed:


  #include <iostream>
  #include <string>
  
  int main() {
  
    std::string shortaddress= "2odzomo2v4pec";
  
    //Output address without the 13th character
    std::cout << shortaddress.erase(12,13) << std::endl;
  
    return 0;
  }