ImportPublicKey

ImportPublicKey imports a public key as watch-only into the wallet. The public key is converted into a simple address of the given type and that address script is watched on chain. For Taproot keys, this will only watch the BIP-0086 style output script. Use ImportTapscript for more advanced key spend or script spend outputs.

NOTE: Events (deposits/spends) for a key will only be detected by lnd if they happen after the import. Rescans to detect past events will be supported later on.

Source: walletrpc/walletkit.proto

gRPC

rpc ImportPublicKey (ImportPublicKeyRequest) returns (ImportPublicKeyResponse);

REST

HTTP Method	Path
POST	/v2/wallet/key/import

Code Samples

gRPC

Javascript

const fs = require('fs');
const grpc = require('@grpc/grpc-js');
const protoLoader = require('@grpc/proto-loader');

const GRPC_HOST = 'localhost:10009'
const MACAROON_PATH = 'LND_DIR/data/chain/bitcoin/regtest/admin.macaroon'
const TLS_PATH = 'LND_DIR/tls.cert'

const loaderOptions = {
  keepCase: true,
  longs: String,
  enums: String,
  defaults: true,
  oneofs: true,
};
const packageDefinition = protoLoader.loadSync(['lightning.proto', 'walletrpc/walletkit.proto'], loaderOptions);
const walletrpc = grpc.loadPackageDefinition(packageDefinition).walletrpc;
process.env.GRPC_SSL_CIPHER_SUITES = 'HIGH+ECDSA';
const tlsCert = fs.readFileSync(TLS_PATH);
const sslCreds = grpc.credentials.createSsl(tlsCert);
const macaroon = fs.readFileSync(MACAROON_PATH).toString('hex');
const macaroonCreds = grpc.credentials.createFromMetadataGenerator(function(args, callback) {
  let metadata = new grpc.Metadata();
  metadata.add('macaroon', macaroon);
  callback(null, metadata);
});
let creds = grpc.credentials.combineChannelCredentials(sslCreds, macaroonCreds);
let client = new walletrpc.WalletKit(GRPC_HOST, creds);
let request = {
  public_key: <bytes>,
  address_type: <AddressType>,
};
client.importPublicKey(request, function(err, response) {
  console.log(response);
});
// Console output:
//  {
//  }

Python

import codecs, grpc, os
# Generate the following 2 modules by compiling the walletrpc/walletkit.proto with the grpcio-tools.
# See https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/blob/master/docs/grpc/python.md for instructions.
import walletkit_pb2 as walletrpc, walletkit_pb2_grpc as walletkitstub

GRPC_HOST = 'localhost:10009'
MACAROON_PATH = 'LND_DIR/data/chain/bitcoin/regtest/admin.macaroon'
TLS_PATH = 'LND_DIR/tls.cert'

# create macaroon credentials
macaroon = codecs.encode(open(MACAROON_PATH, 'rb').read(), 'hex')
def metadata_callback(context, callback):
  callback([('macaroon', macaroon)], None)
auth_creds = grpc.metadata_call_credentials(metadata_callback)
# create SSL credentials
os.environ['GRPC_SSL_CIPHER_SUITES'] = 'HIGH+ECDSA'
cert = open(TLS_PATH, 'rb').read()
ssl_creds = grpc.ssl_channel_credentials(cert)
# combine macaroon and SSL credentials
combined_creds = grpc.composite_channel_credentials(ssl_creds, auth_creds)
# make the request
channel = grpc.secure_channel(GRPC_HOST, combined_creds)
stub = walletkitstub.WalletKitStub(channel)
request = walletrpc.ImportPublicKeyRequest(
  public_key=<bytes>,
  address_type=<AddressType>,
)
response = stub.ImportPublicKey(request)
print(response)
# {
# }

REST

Javascript

const fs = require('fs');
const request = require('request');

const REST_HOST = 'localhost:8080'
const MACAROON_PATH = 'LND_DIR/data/chain/bitcoin/regtest/admin.macaroon'

let requestBody = {
  public_key: <string>, // <bytes> (base64 encoded)
  address_type: <string>, // <AddressType> 
};
let options = {
  url: `https://${REST_HOST}/v2/wallet/key/import`,
  // Work-around for self-signed certificates.
  rejectUnauthorized: false,
  json: true,
  headers: {
    'Grpc-Metadata-macaroon': fs.readFileSync(MACAROON_PATH).toString('hex'),
  },
  form: JSON.stringify(requestBody),
}
request.post(options, function(error, response, body) {
  console.log(body);
});
// Console output:
//  {
//  }

Python

import base64, codecs, json, requests

REST_HOST = 'localhost:8080'
MACAROON_PATH = 'LND_DIR/data/chain/bitcoin/regtest/admin.macaroon'
TLS_PATH = 'LND_DIR/tls.cert'

url = f'https://{REST_HOST}/v2/wallet/key/import'
macaroon = codecs.encode(open(MACAROON_PATH, 'rb').read(), 'hex')
headers = {'Grpc-Metadata-macaroon': macaroon}
data = {
  'public_key': base64.b64encode(<bytes>),
  'address_type': <AddressType>,
}
r = requests.post(url, headers=headers, data=json.dumps(data), verify=TLS_PATH)
print(r.json())
# {
# }

Shell

# There is no CLI command for this RPC

Messages

walletrpc.ImportPublicKeyRequest

Source: walletrpc/walletkit.proto

Field	gRPC Type	REST Type	REST Placement
public_key A compressed public key represented as raw bytes.	bytes	string	body
address_type The type of address that will be generated from the public key.	AddressType	string	body

walletrpc.ImportPublicKeyResponse

Source: walletrpc/walletkit.proto

note

This response has no parameters.

Enums

walletrpc.AddressType

Name	Number
UNKNOWN	0
WITNESS_PUBKEY_HASH	1
NESTED_WITNESS_PUBKEY_HASH	2
HYBRID_NESTED_WITNESS_PUBKEY_HASH	3
TAPROOT_PUBKEY	4