diff --git a/util/util.go b/util/util.go
index 9c17fe0e6..d2a432789 100644
--- a/util/util.go
+++ b/util/util.go
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import (
 	"path/filepath"
 	"strings"
 
+	ds "github.com/jbenet/go-ipfs/Godeps/_workspace/src/github.com/jbenet/datastore.go"
 	b58 "github.com/jbenet/go-ipfs/Godeps/_workspace/src/github.com/jbenet/go-base58"
 	mh "github.com/jbenet/go-ipfs/Godeps/_workspace/src/github.com/jbenet/go-multihash"
 )
@@ -31,6 +32,10 @@ var ErrNotFound = errors.New("Error: Not Found.")
 // Key is a string representation of multihash for use with maps.
 type Key string
 
+func (k Key) DatastoreKey() ds.Key {
+	return ds.NewKey(string(k))
+}
+
 func (k Key) Pretty() string {
 	return b58.Encode([]byte(k))
 }