Sign In With Coinbase Legacy Keys

Legacy API key authentication is supported but optional for Sign in with Coinbase APIs. Coinbase recommends that you generate keys on the Coinbase Developer Platform (CDP).

Generating an API Key

You can create and activate new API keys in your API settings. Your API keys should be assigned to access only accounts and permission scopes that are necessary for your app to function.

Making a Request

All REST requests must contain the following headers:

• CB-ACCESS-KEY API key as a string
• CB-ACCESS-SIGN Message signature (see below)
• CB-ACCESS-TIMESTAMP Timestamp for your request

All request bodies should have content type application/json and be valid JSON.

Example request:

curl https://api.coinbase.com/v2/user \
  --header "CB-ACCESS-KEY: <your api key>" \
  --header "CB-ACCESS-SIGN: <the user generated message signature>" \
  --header "CB-ACCESS-TIMESTAMP: <a timestamp for your request>"

Selecting a Timestamp

The CB-ACCESS-TIMESTAMP header MUST be number of seconds since Unix Epoch in UTC.

Your timestamp must be within 30 seconds of the API service time, or your request will be considered expired and rejected. If you think there is a time skew between your server and the API servers, use the time API endpoint to query for the API server time.

Creating a Signature

The CB-ACCESS-SIGN header is generated by creating a sha256 HMAC using the secret key on the prehash string timestamp + method + requestPath + body (where + represents string concatenation).

• timestamp is the same as the X-CB-ACCESS-TIMESTAMP header.

• method should be UPPER CASE.

• requestPath is the full path and query parameters of the URL, e.g.: /v2/exchange-rates?currency=USD.

• body is the request body string. It is omitted if there is no request body (typically for GET requests).

Signature Examples

The following examples demonstrate how to generate a signature using a legacy key:

Python

# Requires python-requests. Install with pip or easy-install
##  Install with pip: pip install requests
##  Install with easy-install: easy_install requests

import json, hmac, hashlib, time, requests
from requests.auth import AuthBase

# Before implementation, set environmental variables with the names API_KEY and API_SECRET
API_KEY = 'API_KEY'
API_SECRET = 'API_SECRET'

# Create custom authentication for Coinbase API
class CoinbaseWalletAuth(AuthBase):
    def __init__(self, api_key, secret_key):
        self.api_key = api_key
        self.secret_key = secret_key

    def __call__(self, request):
        timestamp = str(int(time.time()))
        message = timestamp + request.method + request.path_url + (request.body or '')
        signature = hmac.new(self.secret_key.encode(), message.encode(), hashlib.sha256).hexdigest()

        request.headers.update({
            'CB-ACCESS-SIGN': signature,
            'CB-ACCESS-TIMESTAMP': timestamp,
            'CB-ACCESS-KEY': self.api_key,
        })
        return request

api_url = 'https://api.coinbase.com/v2/'
auth = CoinbaseWalletAuth(API_KEY, API_SECRET)

# Get current user
r = requests.get(api_url + 'user', auth=auth)
print r.json()
# {u'data': {u'username': None, u'resource': u'user', u'name': u'User'...

# Send funds
tx = {
    'type': 'send',
    'to': 'user@example.com',
    'amount': '10.0',
    'currency': 'USD',
}
r = requests.post(api_url + 'accounts/primary/transactions', json=tx, auth=auth)
print r.json()
# {u'data': {u'status': u'pending', u'amount': {u'currency': u'BTC'...

Ruby

require 'openssl'
require 'json'

class CoinbaseWallet
  def initialize(key, secret)
    @key = key
    @secret = secret
  end

  def signature(request_path='', body='', timestamp=nil, method='GET')
    body = body.to_json if body.is_a?(Hash)
    timestamp = Time.now.to_i if !timestamp

    message = "#{timestamp}#{method}#{request_path}#{body}"

    # create a sha256 hmac with the secret
    hash = OpenSSL::HMAC.hexdigest('sha256', @secret, message)
  end
end

JavaScript

// npm install crypto
var crypto = require('crypto');
// npm install request
var request = require('request');

// Set these in your environment, or enter them here with the actual string
var apiKey = '';
var apiSecret = '';


//get unix time in seconds
var timestamp = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000);

// set the parameter for the request message
var req = {
    method: 'GET',
    path: '/v2/exchange-rates?currency=USD',
    body: ''
};

var message = timestamp + req.method + req.path + req.body;
console.log(message);

//create a hexedecimal encoded SHA256 signature of the message
var signature = crypto.createHmac("sha256", apiSecret).update(message).digest("hex");

//create the request options object
var options = {
    baseUrl: 'https://api.coinbase.com/',
    url: req.path,
    method: req.method,
    headers: {
        'CB-ACCESS-SIGN': signature,
        'CB-ACCESS-TIMESTAMP': timestamp,
        'CB-ACCESS-KEY': apiKey,
        'CB-VERSION': '2015-07-22'
    }
};

request(options,function(err, response){
    if (err) console.log(err);
    console.log(response.body);
});