Struct SignerHandle 

pub struct SignerHandle<K: KeyScheme> { /* private fields */ }

The unlocked handle. Drop wipes the secret.

Cloning a SignerHandle clones the underlying zeroizing buffer — both copies are independently wiped on drop. This is expensive for high-frequency signing; prefer sharing an Arc<SignerHandle<K>> for that case.

Implementations

impl<K: KeyScheme> SignerHandle<K>

pub fn public_key(&self) -> &K::PublicKey

Borrow the derived public key. Cheap (precomputed at unlock time).

pub fn sign(&self, msg: &[u8]) -> K::Signature

Sign a byte message.

pub fn try_sign(&self, msg: &[u8]) -> Result<K::Signature>

Attempt to sign, surfacing any scheme-level errors instead of panicking.

pub fn expose_secret(&self) -> &[u8]

Borrow the raw secret bytes.

⚠️ Danger

Prefer sign whenever possible. This method exists for a narrow class of consumers — hierarchical-deterministic (HD) wallets and key-derivation libraries — that need the raw seed bytes to derive child keys (e.g. chia_bls::DerivableKey::derive_unhardened). These callers cannot use sign because they need the SecretKey itself, not a signature.

The returned slice is borrowed from the handle’s internal Zeroizing<Vec<u8>>, so it wipes automatically when the handle drops. Callers must not copy the bytes into a non-zeroizing buffer without re-wrapping them — doing so would leave the secret on the heap past the end of its intended lifetime.

Typical usage:

let signer = get_signer();
let master_sk = chia_bls::SecretKey::from_seed(signer.expose_secret());
// `master_sk` is now the chia-bls master key; HD-derive as needed.

If you catch yourself writing signer.expose_secret().to_vec() or let copy = signer.expose_secret().to_owned();, stop and consider whether you really need to own the bytes — and if so, wrap the copy in Zeroizing::<Vec<u8>>::from(...).

Requires the hd-derivation feature. It is split out from custody because most custody consumers want to sign, not to extract; making extraction a second, explicit opt-in keeps it out of their surface.

Trait Implementations

impl<K: KeyScheme> Clone for SignerHandle<K>

fn clone(&self) -> Self

Returns a duplicate of the value.

fn clone_from(&mut self, source: &Self)

Performs copy-assignment from source.

impl<K: KeyScheme> Debug for SignerHandle<K>

fn fmt(&self, f: &mut Formatter<'_>) -> Result

Formats the value using the given formatter.