user38150: If I want to watch a public address, I need the hex string for that address, because the importpubkey command only takes a hex input. How can I convert a  base 58 address to a hex string using the bitcoin core?

user64982: You might want to use the importaddress RPC method (I'm not even aware of an importpubkey method).  The importaddress method accepts the base58 address string you have.  I recently asked a slightly-related question and ended up answering it myself here: How to make ImportMulti function like ImportAddress for watch-only addresses placed into Accounts?

user26481: You cannot generate public key from a bitcoin address. From bitcoin address, all you can get is the hash160. Following reference, this can be done through base58 decoding, going from Step 9 -> Step 8. So you get same output as from Step 4 along with checksum at the end.
Basically you have two alternatives:

If you have the private key, generate the public key and use importpubkey
Use importaddress


38150: <p>If I want to watch a public address, I need the hex string for that address, because the <code>importpubkey</code> command only takes a hex input. How can I convert a  base 58 address to a hex string using the bitcoin core?</p>
 64982: <p>You might want to use the <code>importaddress</code> RPC method (I'm not even aware of an <code>importpubkey</code> method).  The <code>importaddress</code> method accepts the base58 address string you have.  I recently asked a slightly-related question and ended up answering it myself here: <a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/62939/how-to-make-importmulti-function-like-importaddress-for-watch-only-addresses-pla/62987#62987">How to make ImportMulti function like ImportAddress for watch-only addresses placed into Accounts?</a></p>
 26481: <p>You cannot generate public key from a bitcoin address. From bitcoin address, all you can get is the hash160. Following <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Technical_background_of_version_1_Bitcoin_addresses" rel="nofollow noreferrer">reference</a>, this can be done through base58 decoding, going from Step 9 -> Step 8. So you get same output as from Step 4 along with checksum at the end.</p>

<p>Basically you have two alternatives:</p>

<ul>
<li>If you have the private key, generate the public key and use <code>importpubkey</code></li>
<li>Use <code>importaddress</code></li>
</ul>
