Unable to generate delegation transaction with --generate-only without a key in the keybase

[joe-bowman]

We have come across this issue with a potential delegator, who doesn't own a ledger, so wants to generate a transaction, to sign offline, as per the instructions here:

https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/blob/develop/docs/gaia/delegator-guide-cli.md#signing-transactions-from-an-offline-computer

Summary of Bug

The gaiacli tx staking delegate takes a --from param. The problem here is that from (unlike in the docs, which I believe to be incorrect) take the name of a key stored in the keystore, and not a bech32 account key.

For someone who doesn;t want to add their account to an Internet connected machine, this poses an issue. Any command with --generate-only should not require a --from key as the two are completely incompatible.

There is a workaround, by adding a pubkey type to the keybase, and using that - but it seems unintuitive.

Steps to Reproduce

Follow the official delegation docs to generate a tx to sign offline.

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[alexanderbez]

Thanks @joe-bowman. The --from value can be either the Keybase name or the Bech32 account address. I'm not quite understanding the problem tbh. The --generate-only flag needs a --from to populate the address. Can you help clarify the issue?

Namely,

For someone who doesn;t want to add their account to an Internet connected machine, this poses an issue.

Why? You can have a Keybase that isn't connected to the internet to sign txs (use the --offline flag).

[joe-bowman]

I think I see the issue:

cosmos-sdk/client/context/context.go

Line 289 in 6f74095

if addr, err := sdk.AccAddressFromBech32(from); err == nil {

Even if you are using a bech32 cosmos... address that key needs to exist in the keybase; so presumably adding this as a public key is the correct solution.

This is unintuitive and not clear at all from the documentation.

[alexanderbez]

This is unintuitive and not clear at all from the documentation.

What is exactly unclear? Can you elaborate please?

[joe-bowman]

That you cannot provide an arbitrary bech32 key in --from - it has to exist in your keystore. So if you want to sign offline, you need to have added it with the --public method of gaiacli keys add.

[alexanderbez]

Ahhh yes yes. The REST client API doesn't use a Keybase and thus only supports generate only. I believe in the same spirit, the CLI client should also do the same -- not require access to a Keybase. In other words, update NewCLIContext to check if --generate-only is provided, if so, require that a Bech32 address is given in --from and do no Keybase lookup.

@sabau or @fedekunze are either of you interested in picking this up?

[jackzampolin]

I've run into this issue primarily with delegation. We should make the --generate-only flag imply --offline

[alexanderbez]

No, not necessarily. I think the main actionable item here is when --generate-only is provided, not to use the Keybase and enforce that the --from is a valid Bech32 cosmos address. This is exactly what the REST client does.