Heimdall v2 changes compared to v1

There are a number of differences between Heimdall v1 to v2. These changes are outlined below:

Encoding changes to Base64

Data encoding format has been changed from Hex encoded to Base64 encoded, for example:

Hex encoded: BJSk2KCI4snP2Cw/ntDdgp8R25XJ2xg18KL67fyEAwgtPMpeq5APSUHrkv5wtgrFfpmcDivnP8HPGufyyXnByxo=

Base64 encoded: 0x0494a4d8a088e2c9cfd82c3f9ed0dd829f11db95c9db1835f0a2faedfc8403082d3cca5eab900f4941eb92fe70b60ac57e999c0e2be73fc1cf1ae7f2c979c1cb1a

Validator signing key

In Heimdall v2, validator signing keys must be imported into the keyring for transaction signing. For details of keyring, refer to the Cosmos SDK documentation here

From the Cosmos documentation:

The keyring holds the private/public keypairs used to interact with a node. For instance, >a validator key needs to be set up before running the blockchain node, so that blocks can >be correctly signed. The private key can be stored in different locations, called >”backends”, such as a file or the operating system’s own key storage.

How to use Keyring

Below are the instructions on how to import your validator private key into the keyring and use it to sign transactions.

Get your base64 encoded private key from:

cat /var/lib/heimdall/config/priv_validator_key.json

Convert the base64 encoded key to hex encoded key:

echo "<PRIVATE_KEY_BASE64_ENCODED>" | base64 -d | xxd -p -c 256

Import the hex encoded key to your keyring:

heimdalld keys import-hex <KEY_NAME> <PRIVATE_KEY_HEX_ENCODED> --home <HOME_DIR_PATH>

When you first import a key into the keyring, you will be prompted for a password, which will be used every time you sign a transaction.

When running a tx command, just specify the --from argument, by using the name of the key you have set above. Example: heimdalld tx gov vote 1 yes --from <KEY_NAME>

Vote extension in each block

In Heimdall v2, the first transaction of each block will contain the encoded vote extensions. To decode these, use the additional command in heimdallld