---
layout: forum
title: 'Re: Exception: 9key_error error'
grand_parent: Forum Posts
parent: Bitcoin Forum
nav_order: 97
date: 2010-05-16 22:53:59 UTC
original: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=135.msg1133#msg1133
---

# Re: Exception: 9key_error error

---

```
Re: Exception: 9key_error error
May 16, 2010, 10:53:59 PM

Does it happen every time you run it, or just happened once at some random time?

I've never seen that fail before.  It's a call to OpenSSL that I assumed would never fail, but I put an error check there just in case.  I can't imagine how it would fail.  Out of memory maybe.

The code is:

key.h:
    EC_KEY* pkey;

        pkey = EC_KEY_new_by_curve_name(NID_secp256k1);
        if (pkey == NULL)
            throw key_error("CKey::CKey() : EC_KEY_new_by_curve_name failed");

NID_secp256k1 is a constant.
```