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For starters, let it be known that attaching an address to a seed is easy using the JS library:

iota.api.sendTransfer(seed, 3, 14, [{"address": address, "value": 0, "message": "", "tag": ""}], console.log);

This works just fine for addresses generated with the latest versions of the library (I presume it works for all versions after the encryption update).

However, suppose you generate an address using an outdated version of the library, say using this old utility written by Dom. The transaction generated by the above code is not interpreted as an address attachment. This can be confirmed by calling iota.api.getAccountData after the transaction is confirmed and noting that the address does not show up in the addresses list.

Is there a way to attach such an address to your seed?

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Attaching such old (Curl) addresses might work, but it is by design that it does not most of the time, because usually this is not what you want to do (if you do not want to lose your funds). Read below for more details.

Keep in mind:

NEVER send any funds to old Curl addresses (generated by tools before the Curl to Kerl update). The iota node has some detection logic to detect invalid Kerl addresses, but any Curl address has a 50% chance of being a valid Kerl address too (just that nobody has a private key for it).

YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO WITHDRAW ANY FUNDS SEND TO CURL ADDRESSES.

The reclaim tool cannot help you here either - it has support for transitioning old Curl addresses, but that works only for addresses that had a balance before the snapshot that consolidated them, not for new addresses.

That being said, iri has a check which will silently drop any transactions sent to addresses (this includes address attachments) which are not valid Kerl addresses. Regardless whether the transaction comes from another node or from a wallet. You have an about 50% chance that your Curl address is considered a valid Kerl address, too, but please don't rely on it for anything.

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  • Thank you for the response. I appreciate the warning re: sending to Curl addresses, but it is not needed. If you would move those to a comment, I'll happily accept your answer.
    – loof
    Dec 27, 2017 at 14:45
  • can you elaborate why you want to do that? Standing as it is, I see the risk that somebody else (not you) later finds the answer (from somebody with rather high rep) on this site, and thinks it is fine to send IOTA to their old Curl addresses.
    – mihi ♦
    Dec 27, 2017 at 15:43
  • The intent behind my comment was that the direct answer to the question was hidden by the warnings (perhaps your intent). Perhaps a better idea: could you edit the response to start with: "You might be able to attach the address, but under no circumstances should you do so." and then follow up with the explanation. What do you think?
    – loof
    Dec 27, 2017 at 20:14
  • @loof I wanted to ask about reasons why you want to attach old addresses, not why you want me to edit the answer. Anyway, I have edited it to make it more clear that there will be an answer after "the spoiler break" :-)
    – mihi ♦
    Dec 27, 2017 at 23:03
  • Ahh, my bad. I'm helping troubleshoot a 'missing funds' issue for someone where they know the address the funds live in, but it might have been generated with an old program or version of the wallet. The funds were not locked down by the Foundation, so it wasn't involved with that.
    – loof
    Dec 28, 2017 at 2:45

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