diff --git a/thirdparty/s3-datastore/datastore.go b/thirdparty/s3-datastore/datastore.go
index 87e21d729..981ab5415 100644
--- a/thirdparty/s3-datastore/datastore.go
+++ b/thirdparty/s3-datastore/datastore.go
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package s3datastore
 
 import (
+	"encoding/hex"
 	"errors"
 
 	"github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/Godeps/_workspace/src/github.com/crowdmob/goamz/s3"
@@ -19,25 +20,42 @@ type S3Datastore struct {
 	Bucket string
 }
 
+func (ds *S3Datastore) encode(key datastore.Key) string {
+	return hex.EncodeToString(key.Bytes())
+}
+
+func (ds *S3Datastore) decode(raw string) (datastore.Key, bool) {
+	k, err := hex.DecodeString(raw)
+	if err != nil {
+		return datastore.Key{}, false
+	}
+	return datastore.NewKey(string(k)), true
+}
+
 func (ds *S3Datastore) Put(key datastore.Key, value interface{}) (err error) {
 	data, ok := value.([]byte)
 	if !ok {
 		return ErrInvalidType
 	}
 	// TODO extract perms and s3 options
-	return ds.Client.Bucket(ds.Bucket).Put(key.String(), data, "application/protobuf", s3.PublicRead, s3.Options{})
+
+	k := ds.encode(key)
+	return ds.Client.Bucket(ds.Bucket).Put(k, data, "application/protobuf", s3.PublicRead, s3.Options{})
 }
 
 func (ds *S3Datastore) Get(key datastore.Key) (value interface{}, err error) {
-	return ds.Client.Bucket(ds.Bucket).Get(key.String())
+	k := ds.encode(key)
+	return ds.Client.Bucket(ds.Bucket).Get(k)
 }
 
 func (ds *S3Datastore) Has(key datastore.Key) (exists bool, err error) {
-	return ds.Client.Bucket(ds.Bucket).Exists(key.String())
+	k := ds.encode(key)
+	return ds.Client.Bucket(ds.Bucket).Exists(k)
 }
 
 func (ds *S3Datastore) Delete(key datastore.Key) (err error) {
-	return ds.Client.Bucket(ds.Bucket).Del(key.String())
+	k := ds.encode(key)
+	return ds.Client.Bucket(ds.Bucket).Del(k)
 }
 
 func (ds *S3Datastore) Query(q query.Query) (query.Results, error) {