Tutorial¶

A step-by-step walkthrough of wallet creation, encryption, and transaction signing on Cardano testnet.

Prerequisites¶

# Install cardano-wallet-sign
nix build github:lambdasistemi/cardano-wallet-sign
export PATH="./result/bin:$PATH"

# You'll also need cardano-cli for building transactions

1. Generate a wallet¶

cardano-wallet-sign generate -o wallet.json

Output:

address: addr_test1vz6zuv...
owner:   b42e31bb7a39...
wallet:  wallet.json

The address is a bech32 Shelley enterprise address. The owner is the Blake2b_224 hash of the public key (hex).

Warning

The wallet file contains your mnemonic in plaintext. Encrypt it immediately (see step 2).

2. Encrypt the wallet¶

cardano-wallet-sign encrypt -w wallet.json

You will be prompted for a passphrase (twice for confirmation). The file is encrypted in place using AES-256-GCM.

Verify it worked:

cat wallet.json
# {"encrypted":"...","iv":"...","salt":"...","tag":"..."}

3. Check wallet info¶

cardano-wallet-sign info -w wallet.json

If the wallet is encrypted, you will be prompted for the passphrase.

4. Fund the wallet¶

Go to the Cardano testnet faucet and send test ADA to your address.

5. Build a transaction¶

Use cardano-cli to build an unsigned transaction:

# Query UTxOs
cardano-cli conway query utxo \
    --address "$(cardano-wallet-sign info -w wallet.json \
        | grep address | awk '{print $2}')" \
    --testnet-magic 1

# Build the transaction (adjust UTxO, amounts, addresses)
cardano-cli conway transaction build-raw \
    --tx-in TX_HASH#TX_IX \
    --tx-out RECIPIENT_ADDR+AMOUNT \
    --tx-out YOUR_ADDR+CHANGE \
    --fee FEE \
    --out-file tx.unsigned

6. Sign the transaction¶

Extract the CBOR hex and sign:

TX_HEX=$(xxd -p tx.unsigned | tr -d '\n')

SIGNED=$(cardano-wallet-sign sign -w wallet.json --tx "$TX_HEX")

You will be prompted for the passphrase if the wallet is encrypted.

7. Submit the transaction¶

echo -n "$SIGNED" | xxd -r -p > tx.signed

cardano-cli conway transaction submit \
    --tx-file tx.signed \
    --testnet-magic 1

8. Decrypt the wallet (optional)¶

If you need the plaintext mnemonic back:

cardano-wallet-sign decrypt -w wallet.json

Environment variable¶

You can set CARDANO_WALLET_FILE to avoid passing -w every time:

export CARDANO_WALLET_FILE=wallet.json

cardano-wallet-sign info
cardano-wallet-sign sign --tx "$TX_HEX"