Accounts, Keys & Fees

Everything about holding an identity on Pocket Network with pocketd: creating accounts, backing them up, choosing how keys are stored, and paying for transactions. For read-only lookups use Querying the Chain; for the commands that spend from an account, see Staking & Transactions.

Accounts and Addresses

An account is your identity on the blockchain. It has three parts:

  • Address — a public identifier starting with pokt1, like a bank account number. Share it freely so others can send you tokens or look up your activity.
  • Public key — derived from your private key; safe to share, used to verify your identity.
  • Private key — the secret that proves ownership. Anyone with it controls your funds. Never share it.

Prefer a graphical interface? Pocket is supported by browser wallets — Soothe Vault (Chrome/Firefox) and Keplr (Chrome/Firefox/mobile). See Wallets. The rest of this page covers the pocketd CLI.

The Mnemonic Seed Phrase

When you create an account you receive a 24-word mnemonic — the master backup of your private key. It restores your account on any machine with pocketd installed.

Danger

Write your mnemonic down on paper stored in multiple secure locations, or use a reputable password manager. If you lose it and lose access to the device holding your keys, your funds are gone permanently — there is no “forgot password” on a decentralized network.

Creating an Account

bash
pocketd keys add myWallet

Output includes your address, public key, and the mnemonic to back up:

plaintext
- address: pokt1exampleaddress123456789
  name: myWallet
  pubkey: '{"@type":"/cosmos.crypto.secp256k1.PubKey","key":"..."}'
  type: local

**Important** write this mnemonic phrase in a safe place.
word1 word2 word3 ... word24

Retrieve an address or list your keys:

bash
pocketd keys show myWallet -a   # print the address
pocketd keys list               # list all keys

HD Wallets and Derivation

pocketd uses the BIP-0044 standard, so one seed phrase can generate a whole family of related accounts. POKT is registered under coin_type = 635 (SLIP-0044), giving the default derivation path:

plaintext
m/44'/635'/0'/0/0

To set it explicitly:

bash
pocketd keys add myWallet --coin-type=635

Keyring Backends

The --keyring-backend flag controls where private keys are stored on disk:

BackendDescriptionRecommended for
osOS credential store (Keychain, libsecret). Protected by your system login.Production operators
fileEncrypted file on disk. Password required each access.Production operators
testUnencrypted on disk. No password prompt.Local development only
memoryIn-memory only; lost when the process exits.Ephemeral scripting
Warning

With real POKT on MainNet, always use os or file. The test backend offers no security.

Set it per-command or persistently in ~/.pocket/config/client.toml:

bash
pocketd keys add myWallet --keyring-backend=os
toml
keyring-backend = "os"

The --home flag sets the root directory (default ~/.pocket); --keyring-dir overrides just the key location:

bash
pocketd keys list --home=. --keyring-backend=test --keyring-dir=./mykeys
# Creates: ./mykeys/keyring-test/

Password-less keyring on Linux (os backend)

To avoid password prompts with the os backend on Debian/Ubuntu, integrate with pass and GPG:

bash
sudo apt-get install pass
gpg --full-generate-key
gpg --list-secret-keys --keyid-format LONG
pass init YOUR_GPG_KEY_ID
pass insert cosmos-keyring
pass cosmos-keyring
pocketd keys list
Info

After each system restart, run pass cosmos-keyring once before pocketd commands will work without a password prompt.

Importing, Exporting & Recovering Keys

bash
# Recover an account from its 24-word mnemonic (you'll be prompted for it)
pocketd keys add myRecoveredWallet --recover

# Import a raw hex private key
pocketd keys import-hex myWallet abc123def456...

# Export a raw hex private key
pocketd keys export myWallet --unsafe --unarmored-hex --yes
Danger

Handle exported private keys with extreme care. Store them offline and never commit them to version control — an exposed private key is full access to the account.

Token Denomination

  • POKT — the human-friendly unit. “1,000 POKT” means this.
  • upokt (micro-POKT) — the smallest on-chain unit. 1 POKT = 1,000,000 upokt.

Like dollars and cents, the blockchain always works in upokt internally; most tools display POKT for readability. To check any account’s balance (a free, read-only operation), see Querying the Chain.

Funding Your Account

A faucet distributes free tokens — test POKT on Beta TestNet, and MACT (Migration Account Claim Tokens) for Morse-migration participants on MainNet.

bash
# Beta TestNet POKT, by key name
pocketd faucet fund upokt myWallet --network=beta

# MainNet MACT
pocketd faucet fund mact myWallet --network=main

# By address instead of key name
pocketd faucet fund upokt pokt1youraddresshere --network=beta

Web faucets:

Transaction Gas and Fees

Every transaction pays a small fee: Total Fee = Gas Limit × Gas Price. The network minimum gas price is 0.000001upokt, so a typical transaction costs around 1 upokt — effectively negligible.

bash
# Standard (most transactions)
pocketd tx bank send myWallet pokt1recipient 1000000upokt \
  --gas=auto --fees=1upokt --network=main

# Gas-price method (let the network compute the fee)
pocketd tx bank send myWallet pokt1recipient 1000000upokt \
  --gas=auto --gas-prices=0.000001upokt --gas-adjustment=1.2 --network=main
FlagPurposeExample
--gasGas limit, or auto to estimate--gas=auto
--feesFixed total fee (overrides gas-prices)--fees=1upokt
--gas-pricesPrice per gas unit--gas-prices=0.000001upokt
--gas-adjustmentMultiplier for auto gas estimation--gas-adjustment=1.2
Warning

Do not combine --fees and --gas-prices in the same command — they are mutually exclusive.