# ECIES Encryption - Example

Now, let's demonstrate how the **ECIES encryption scheme** works in practice in **Python**. We shall use a Python library [`eciespy`](https://kigawas.me/eciespy/):

```python
pip install eciespy
```

A sample Python code to generate public / private **key pair** and **encrypt** and **decrypt** a message using ECIES is:

```python
from ecies.utils import generate_eth_key
from ecies import encrypt, decrypt
import binascii

privKey = generate_eth_key()
privKeyHex = privKey.to_hex()
pubKeyHex = privKey.public_key.to_hex()
print("Encryption public key:", pubKeyHex)
print("Decryption private key:", privKeyHex)

plaintext = b'Some plaintext for encryption'
print("Plaintext:", plaintext)

encrypted = encrypt(pubKeyHex, plaintext)
print("Encrypted:", binascii.hexlify(encrypted))

decrypted = decrypt(privKeyHex, encrypted)
print("Decrypted:", decrypted)
```

Run the above code example: <https://repl.it/@nakov/ECIES-in-Python>.

The above code is pretty simple: just generate ECC **public + private key pair** using `ecies.utils.generate_eth_key()` and call the `ecies.encrypt(pubKey, msg)` and `decrypt(privKey, encryptedMsg)` functions from the `eciespy` library.

The **output** form the above code looks like this:

```
Encryption public key: 0x0dc8e06c055b45ecf110258ed5c0261ce2019b1bd0f8f226dcd010dade448b8f304a0915c68cdf7ddded8e4021d28fb92e27d08df695f48a0d2c41ddee750fc7
Decryption private key: 0x487fd8b53c471e3c38484a0fbe4751ace67a9ed28e60ea6b0b44c445b881f99d
Plaintext: b'Some plaintext for encryption'
Encrypted: b'045699078bbd101e270572d0d68e87a8f7b6cc377ebeeffb60d2fcac5dc7bdd86a26d7f79d13b92e923a0e2cdbe418a7856b27157ef150d5c72f4f8f312467d13221ebe7049b7ed2f0ed253bce13117129a7b01bb881b8dfbf004ff11f3ebed4c732744bc49ea03230c2d1b2ec80774e79c075431d2019464d3de97ceb96'
Decrypted: b'Some plaintext for encryption'
```

The Python `eciespy` library internally uses **ECC** cryptography over the **secp256k1** curve + **AES-256-GCM** authenticated encryption. Note that the above encrypted message holds together 4 values: `{cipherPubKey, AES-nonce, authTag, AES-ciphertext}`, packed in binary form and not directly visible from the above output.


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://cryptobook.nakov.com/asymmetric-key-ciphers/ecies-example.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.