Generate Bitcoin Address JS Step-By-Step "Invalid Address" Error

Question

I am following the process for bitcoin address creation as outlined in Mastering Bitcoin, however, when I try to reference this address in my bitcoin-cli, which is set to regtest, it responds with an invalid address error. I am attempting to write some JS to interact with my bitcoin node via the bitcoin-core package, but instead of just using all the built in commands, write some of the code myself to solidify my understanding.

I am using the following npm packages:

const EC = require('elliptic').ec;
const ec = new EC('secp256k1');
const bs58 = require('bs58')
const SHA256 = require("crypto-js/sha256");
const RIPEMD160 = require("crypto-js/ripemd160");

Here is my address creation function.

function createNewAddress() {
  // Get the private key
  const privateKey = ec.genKeyPair()
  // Get the public point from the private key
  const publicPoint = privateKey.getPublic();
  // Uncompressed public key
  const uncompressedPK = publicPoint.encode('hex');
  // SHA256 then RIPEMD160, aka HASH160
  const hashedPK = RIPEMD160(SHA256(uncompressedPK).toString()).toString();
  // Prepend the version, here we use 6F got the testnet (we are using regtest)
  const prependedPK = "6F"+hashedPK;
  // Calculate the checksum and take the first 4 btyes
  const checksum = SHA256(SHA256(prependedPK).toString()).toString().substring(0,9);
  // Append the checksum to the end
  const unencodedPK = prependedPK + checksum;
  // Base58Encode the unencodedPK
  const bytes = Buffer.from(unencodedPK, 'hex');
  const bitcoinAddress = bs58.encode(bytes);
  return (bitcoinAddress);
}

Here is a simple output: mtURXDaisk6ustpeo7LuiZYje9yV31JhBN

Answer 1

You are hashing everything as hex strings. However that is not the proper way to hash stuff. They should all be hashed as bytes (i.e. the raw data), not strings of hexadecimal.