diff --git a/core/coreunix/metadata.go b/core/coreunix/metadata.go
index 6e9bd01cc..7b23bf080 100644
--- a/core/coreunix/metadata.go
+++ b/core/coreunix/metadata.go
@@ -7,8 +7,9 @@ import (
 	u "github.com/jbenet/go-ipfs/util"
 )
 
-func AddMetadataTo(key u.Key, m *ft.Metadata, n *core.IpfsNode) (u.Key, error) {
-	nd, err := n.DAG.Get(key)
+func AddMetadataTo(n *core.IpfsNode, key string, m *ft.Metadata) (string, error) {
+	ukey := u.B58KeyDecode(key)
+	nd, err := n.DAG.Get(ukey)
 	if err != nil {
 		return "", err
 	}
@@ -25,11 +26,17 @@ func AddMetadataTo(key u.Key, m *ft.Metadata, n *core.IpfsNode) (u.Key, error) {
 		return "", err
 	}
 
-	return n.DAG.Add(mdnode)
+	nk, err := n.DAG.Add(mdnode)
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", err
+	}
+
+	return nk.B58String(), nil
 }
 
-func Metadata(key u.Key, n *core.IpfsNode) (*ft.Metadata, error) {
-	nd, err := n.DAG.Get(key)
+func Metadata(n *core.IpfsNode, key string) (*ft.Metadata, error) {
+	ukey := u.B58KeyDecode(key)
+	nd, err := n.DAG.Get(ukey)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
diff --git a/core/coreunix/metadata_test.go b/core/coreunix/metadata_test.go
index ab7bba60c..56074fad5 100644
--- a/core/coreunix/metadata_test.go
+++ b/core/coreunix/metadata_test.go
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import (
 	dssync "github.com/jbenet/go-ipfs/Godeps/_workspace/src/github.com/jbenet/go-datastore/sync"
 	bstore "github.com/jbenet/go-ipfs/blocks/blockstore"
 	bserv "github.com/jbenet/go-ipfs/blockservice"
+	core "github.com/jbenet/go-ipfs/core"
 	offline "github.com/jbenet/go-ipfs/exchange/offline"
 	importer "github.com/jbenet/go-ipfs/importer"
 	chunk "github.com/jbenet/go-ipfs/importer/chunk"
@@ -19,7 +20,7 @@ import (
 	u "github.com/jbenet/go-ipfs/util"
 )
 
-func getDagservAndPinner(t *testing.T) merkledag.DAGService {
+func getDagserv(t *testing.T) merkledag.DAGService {
 	db := dssync.MutexWrap(ds.NewMapDatastore())
 	bs := bstore.NewBlockstore(db)
 	blockserv, err := bserv.New(bs, offline.Exchange(bs))
@@ -31,7 +32,7 @@ func getDagservAndPinner(t *testing.T) merkledag.DAGService {
 
 func TestMetadata(t *testing.T) {
 	// Make some random node
-	ds := getDagservAndPinner(t)
+	ds := getDagserv(t)
 	data := make([]byte, 1000)
 	u.NewTimeSeededRand().Read(data)
 	r := bytes.NewReader(data)
@@ -48,12 +49,15 @@ func TestMetadata(t *testing.T) {
 	m := new(ft.Metadata)
 	m.MimeType = "THIS IS A TEST"
 
-	mdk, err := AddMetadataTo(k, m, ds)
+	// Such effort, many compromise
+	ipfsnode := &core.IpfsNode{DAG: ds}
+
+	mdk, err := AddMetadataTo(ipfsnode, k.B58String(), m)
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 
-	rec, err := Metadata(mdk, ds)
+	rec, err := Metadata(ipfsnode, mdk)
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
@@ -61,7 +65,7 @@ func TestMetadata(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("something went wrong in conversion: '%s' != '%s'", rec.MimeType, m.MimeType)
 	}
 
-	retnode, err := ds.Get(mdk)
+	retnode, err := ds.Get(u.B58KeyDecode(mdk))
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}