Shade Protocol: What Is A Viewing Key?

Secure Secrets
2 min readFeb 16, 2022

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What is a Viewing Key?

All balances of tokens (such as $SHD) on a public address are kept encrypted and private by default on Secret Network. Viewing keys are a tool that allow users to view their own encrypted token balance. Additionally, viewing keys can be generated to allow third parties, (including other smart contracts) to view an individual’s encrypted balance. Viewing keys are helpful for giving auditors, wallets, and explorers access to relevant data to create a helpful user experience. Viewing keys can be regenerated as needed by a user.

For a full in depth understanding of viewing keys and their architecture, please refer to the following article:

https://medium.com/@secretnetwork/secret-network-access-control-viewing-keys-vs-permits-97baad539e72

How do viewing keys interact with Shade Protocol?

In order to view the amount of $SHD that is held by your wallet and address, you must create a viewing key. Upon creating a viewing key for $SHD, a user will no longer need to create a new viewing key for other scenarios where their $SHD SNIP-20 token balance is used. Viewing keys must be generated once per unique device.

How do I create a Viewing Key?

Manually create a SHD viewing key: https://securesecrets-org.medium.com/how-to-create-a-shd-viewing-key-3c297c7747d6

Click on the “Get Viewing Key” button on the right side of the Shade Protocol website. Alternatively, during the Shade Airdrop claim process there is also a step that prompts you to create a viewing key.

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Secure Secrets

Privacy Focused Validator and software development company. Secure Secrets also is a core contributor to Shade Protocol. Website: https://www.securesecrets.org/