diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 1505a53da4bb..a0356406f9b6 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -69,13 +69,14 @@ and provided directly the IAVL store.
 * (modules) [\#5572](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/5572) Move account balance logic and APIs from `x/auth` to `x/bank`.
 * (types) [\#5533](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/5533) Refactored `AppModuleBasic` and `AppModuleGenesis`
 to now accept a `codec.JSONMarshaler` for modular serialization of genesis state.
-* (crypto/keys) [\#5735](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/5735) Keyring's `Update()` function is now no-op.
+* (crypto/keyring) [\#5735](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/5735) Keyring's `Update()` function is now no-op.
 * (types/rest) [\#5779](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/5779) Drop unused Parse{Int64OrReturnBadRequest,QueryParamBool}() functions.
 * (keys) [\#5820](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/5820/) Removed method CloseDB from Keybase interface.
 * (baseapp) [\#5837](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/issues/5837) Transaction simulation now returns a `SimulationResponse` which contains the `GasInfo` and
 `Result` from the execution.
-* (crypto/keys) [\#5866](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/5866) Move `Keyring` and `Keybase` implementations and their associated types from `crypto/keys/` to `crypto/keybase/`.
+* (crypto/keyring) [\#5866](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/5866) Move `Keyring` and `Keybase` implementations and their associated types from `crypto/keys/` to `crypto/keyring/`.
 * (crypto) [\#5880](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/5880) Merge `crypto/keys/mintkey` into `crypto`.
+* (crypto/keyring) [\#5858](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/5858) Make Keyring store keys by name and address's hexbytes representation.
 
 ### Features
 
@@ -85,7 +86,7 @@ to now accept a `codec.JSONMarshaler` for modular serialization of genesis state
 
 * (types) [\#5741](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/issues/5741) Prevent ChainAnteDecorators() from panicking when empty AnteDecorator slice is supplied.
 * (modules) [\#5569](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/issues/5569) `InitGenesis`, for the relevant modules, now ensures module accounts exist.
-* (crypto/keys) [\#5844](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/5844) Keybase/Keyring `Sign()` methods no longer decode amino signatures
+* (crypto/keyring) [\#5844](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/5844) Keybase/Keyring `Sign()` methods no longer decode amino signatures
 when method receivers are offline/multisig keys.
 
 ### State Machine Breaking
diff --git a/client/keys/add.go b/client/keys/add.go
index d8f768cc4f14..530431eb808d 100644
--- a/client/keys/add.go
+++ b/client/keys/add.go
@@ -291,7 +291,7 @@ func printCreate(cmd *cobra.Command, info keyring.Info, showMnemonic bool, mnemo
 	switch output {
 	case OutputFormatText:
 		cmd.PrintErrln()
-		printKeyInfo(info, keyring.Bech32KeyOutput)
+		printKeyInfo(cmd.OutOrStdout(), info, keyring.Bech32KeyOutput)
 
 		// print mnemonic unless requested not to.
 		if showMnemonic {
diff --git a/client/keys/list.go b/client/keys/list.go
index 8af7f97154d1..770bde2f1465 100644
--- a/client/keys/list.go
+++ b/client/keys/list.go
@@ -36,12 +36,12 @@ func runListCmd(cmd *cobra.Command, _ []string) error {
 		return err
 	}
 
+	cmd.SetOut(cmd.OutOrStdout())
 	if !viper.GetBool(flagListNames) {
-		printInfos(infos)
+		printInfos(cmd.OutOrStdout(), infos)
 		return nil
 	}
 
-	cmd.SetOut(cmd.OutOrStdout())
 	for _, info := range infos {
 		cmd.Println(info.GetName())
 	}
diff --git a/client/keys/parse.go b/client/keys/parse.go
index 79ccca739f0a..5167cd810084 100644
--- a/client/keys/parse.go
+++ b/client/keys/parse.go
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import (
 	"encoding/hex"
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
+	"io"
 	"strings"
 
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
@@ -83,38 +84,39 @@ hexadecimal into bech32 cosmos prefixed format and vice versa.
 	return cmd
 }
 
-func parseKey(_ *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
+func parseKey(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
 	addr := strings.TrimSpace(args[0])
+	outstream := cmd.OutOrStdout()
 	if len(addr) == 0 {
 		return errors.New("couldn't parse empty input")
 	}
-	if !(runFromBech32(addr) || runFromHex(addr)) {
+	if !(runFromBech32(outstream, addr) || runFromHex(outstream, addr)) {
 		return errors.New("couldn't find valid bech32 nor hex data")
 	}
 	return nil
 }
 
 // print info from bech32
-func runFromBech32(bech32str string) bool {
+func runFromBech32(w io.Writer, bech32str string) bool {
 	hrp, bz, err := bech32.DecodeAndConvert(bech32str)
 	if err != nil {
 		return false
 	}
-	displayParseKeyInfo(newHexOutput(hrp, bz))
+	displayParseKeyInfo(w, newHexOutput(hrp, bz))
 	return true
 }
 
 // print info from hex
-func runFromHex(hexstr string) bool {
+func runFromHex(w io.Writer, hexstr string) bool {
 	bz, err := hex.DecodeString(hexstr)
 	if err != nil {
 		return false
 	}
-	displayParseKeyInfo(newBech32Output(bz))
+	displayParseKeyInfo(w, newBech32Output(bz))
 	return true
 }
 
-func displayParseKeyInfo(stringer fmt.Stringer) {
+func displayParseKeyInfo(w io.Writer, stringer fmt.Stringer) {
 	var out []byte
 	var err error
 
@@ -136,5 +138,5 @@ func displayParseKeyInfo(stringer fmt.Stringer) {
 		panic(err)
 	}
 
-	fmt.Println(string(out))
+	fmt.Fprintln(w, string(out))
 }
diff --git a/client/keys/parse_test.go b/client/keys/parse_test.go
index 759deb386c75..2f2941b82f90 100644
--- a/client/keys/parse_test.go
+++ b/client/keys/parse_test.go
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ func TestParseKey(t *testing.T) {
 	for _, tt := range tests {
 		tt := tt
 		t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
-			require.Equal(t, tt.wantErr, parseKey(nil, tt.args) != nil)
+			require.Equal(t, tt.wantErr, parseKey(ParseKeyStringCommand(), tt.args) != nil)
 		})
 	}
 }
diff --git a/client/keys/show.go b/client/keys/show.go
index f4e6cc1fbe5d..c423caa1aaea 100644
--- a/client/keys/show.go
+++ b/client/keys/show.go
@@ -35,10 +35,10 @@ const (
 // ShowKeysCmd shows key information for a given key name.
 func ShowKeysCmd() *cobra.Command {
 	cmd := &cobra.Command{
-		Use:   "show [name [name...]]",
-		Short: "Show key info for the given name",
-		Long: `Return public details of a single local key. If multiple names are
-provided, then an ephemeral multisig key will be created under the name "multi"
+		Use:   "show [name_or_address [name_or_address...]]",
+		Short: "Retrieve key information by name or address",
+		Long: `Display keys details. If multiple names or addresses are provided,
+then an ephemeral multisig key will be created under the name "multi"
 consisting of all the keys provided by name and multisig threshold.`,
 		Args: cobra.MinimumNArgs(1),
 		RunE: runShowCmd,
@@ -62,16 +62,16 @@ func runShowCmd(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) (err error) {
 		return err
 	}
 	if len(args) == 1 {
-		info, err = kb.Get(args[0])
+		info, err = fetchKey(kb, args[0])
 		if err != nil {
-			return err
+			return fmt.Errorf("%s is not a valid name or address: %v", args[0], err)
 		}
 	} else {
 		pks := make([]tmcrypto.PubKey, len(args))
-		for i, keyName := range args {
-			info, err := kb.Get(keyName)
+		for i, keyref := range args {
+			info, err := fetchKey(kb, keyref)
 			if err != nil {
-				return err
+				return fmt.Errorf("%s is not a valid name or address: %v", keyref, err)
 			}
 
 			pks[i] = info.GetPubKey()
@@ -112,11 +112,11 @@ func runShowCmd(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) (err error) {
 
 	switch {
 	case isShowAddr:
-		printKeyAddress(info, bechKeyOut)
+		printKeyAddress(cmd.OutOrStdout(), info, bechKeyOut)
 	case isShowPubKey:
-		printPubKey(info, bechKeyOut)
+		printPubKey(cmd.OutOrStdout(), info, bechKeyOut)
 	default:
-		printKeyInfo(info, bechKeyOut)
+		printKeyInfo(cmd.OutOrStdout(), info, bechKeyOut)
 	}
 
 	if isShowDevice {
@@ -142,6 +142,22 @@ func runShowCmd(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) (err error) {
 	return nil
 }
 
+func fetchKey(kb keyring.Keybase, keyref string) (keyring.Info, error) {
+	info, err := kb.Get(keyref)
+	if err != nil {
+		accAddr, err := sdk.AccAddressFromBech32(keyref)
+		if err != nil {
+			return info, err
+		}
+
+		info, err = kb.GetByAddress(accAddr)
+		if err != nil {
+			return info, errors.New("key not found")
+		}
+	}
+	return info, nil
+}
+
 func validateMultisigThreshold(k, nKeys int) error {
 	if k <= 0 {
 		return fmt.Errorf("threshold must be a positive integer")
diff --git a/client/keys/show_test.go b/client/keys/show_test.go
index f7b35cb3d3e0..fe1070e1ffb7 100644
--- a/client/keys/show_test.go
+++ b/client/keys/show_test.go
@@ -38,8 +38,8 @@ func Test_runShowCmd(t *testing.T) {
 	runningUnattended := isRunningUnattended()
 	cmd := ShowKeysCmd()
 	mockIn, _, _ := tests.ApplyMockIO(cmd)
-	require.EqualError(t, runShowCmd(cmd, []string{"invalid"}), "The specified item could not be found in the keyring")
-	require.EqualError(t, runShowCmd(cmd, []string{"invalid1", "invalid2"}), "The specified item could not be found in the keyring")
+	require.EqualError(t, runShowCmd(cmd, []string{"invalid"}), "invalid is not a valid name or address: decoding bech32 failed: invalid bech32 string length 7")
+	require.EqualError(t, runShowCmd(cmd, []string{"invalid1", "invalid2"}), "invalid1 is not a valid name or address: decoding bech32 failed: invalid index of 1")
 
 	// Prepare a key base
 	// Now add a temporary keybase
@@ -78,7 +78,13 @@ func Test_runShowCmd(t *testing.T) {
 	if runningUnattended {
 		mockIn.Reset("testpass1\n")
 	}
+
+	// try fetch by name
 	require.NoError(t, runShowCmd(cmd, []string{fakeKeyName1}))
+	// try fetch by addr
+	info, err := kb.Get(fakeKeyName1)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+	require.NoError(t, runShowCmd(cmd, []string{info.GetAddress().String()}))
 
 	// Now try multisig key - set bech to acc
 	viper.Set(FlagBechPrefix, sdk.PrefixAccount)
diff --git a/client/keys/utils.go b/client/keys/utils.go
index a6dc78ecb183..4581d6861603 100644
--- a/client/keys/utils.go
+++ b/client/keys/utils.go
@@ -2,12 +2,13 @@ package keys
 
 import (
 	"fmt"
+	"io"
 	"path/filepath"
 
 	"github.com/99designs/keyring"
 	"github.com/spf13/viper"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/libs/cli"
-	yaml "gopkg.in/yaml.v2"
+	"gopkg.in/yaml.v2"
 
 	"github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/client/flags"
 	cryptokeyring "github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/crypto/keyring"
@@ -37,7 +38,7 @@ func getLazyKeyBaseFromDir(rootDir string, opts ...cryptokeyring.KeybaseOption)
 	return cryptokeyring.New(defaultKeyDBName, filepath.Join(rootDir, "keys"), opts...), nil
 }
 
-func printKeyInfo(keyInfo cryptokeyring.Info, bechKeyOut bechKeyOutFn) {
+func printKeyInfo(w io.Writer, keyInfo cryptokeyring.Info, bechKeyOut bechKeyOutFn) {
 	ko, err := bechKeyOut(keyInfo)
 	if err != nil {
 		panic(err)
@@ -45,7 +46,7 @@ func printKeyInfo(keyInfo cryptokeyring.Info, bechKeyOut bechKeyOutFn) {
 
 	switch viper.Get(cli.OutputFlag) {
 	case OutputFormatText:
-		printTextInfos([]cryptokeyring.KeyOutput{ko})
+		printTextInfos(w, []cryptokeyring.KeyOutput{ko})
 
 	case OutputFormatJSON:
 		var out []byte
@@ -59,11 +60,11 @@ func printKeyInfo(keyInfo cryptokeyring.Info, bechKeyOut bechKeyOutFn) {
 			panic(err)
 		}
 
-		fmt.Println(string(out))
+		fmt.Fprintln(w, string(out))
 	}
 }
 
-func printInfos(infos []cryptokeyring.Info) {
+func printInfos(w io.Writer, infos []cryptokeyring.Info) {
 	kos, err := cryptokeyring.Bech32KeysOutput(infos)
 	if err != nil {
 		panic(err)
@@ -71,7 +72,7 @@ func printInfos(infos []cryptokeyring.Info) {
 
 	switch viper.Get(cli.OutputFlag) {
 	case OutputFormatText:
-		printTextInfos(kos)
+		printTextInfos(w, kos)
 
 	case OutputFormatJSON:
 		var out []byte
@@ -86,34 +87,34 @@ func printInfos(infos []cryptokeyring.Info) {
 		if err != nil {
 			panic(err)
 		}
-		fmt.Printf("%s", out)
+		fmt.Fprintf(w, "%s", out)
 	}
 }
 
-func printTextInfos(kos []cryptokeyring.KeyOutput) {
+func printTextInfos(w io.Writer, kos []cryptokeyring.KeyOutput) {
 	out, err := yaml.Marshal(&kos)
 	if err != nil {
 		panic(err)
 	}
-	fmt.Println(string(out))
+	fmt.Fprintln(w, string(out))
 }
 
-func printKeyAddress(info cryptokeyring.Info, bechKeyOut bechKeyOutFn) {
+func printKeyAddress(w io.Writer, info cryptokeyring.Info, bechKeyOut bechKeyOutFn) {
 	ko, err := bechKeyOut(info)
 	if err != nil {
 		panic(err)
 	}
 
-	fmt.Println(ko.Address)
+	fmt.Fprintln(w, ko.Address)
 }
 
-func printPubKey(info cryptokeyring.Info, bechKeyOut bechKeyOutFn) {
+func printPubKey(w io.Writer, info cryptokeyring.Info, bechKeyOut bechKeyOutFn) {
 	ko, err := bechKeyOut(info)
 	if err != nil {
 		panic(err)
 	}
 
-	fmt.Println(ko.PubKey)
+	fmt.Fprintln(w, ko.PubKey)
 }
 
 func isRunningUnattended() bool {
diff --git a/crypto/keyring/db_keybase.go b/crypto/keyring/db_keybase.go
index 4a09cc4afb24..0ed7cbfd927a 100644
--- a/crypto/keyring/db_keybase.go
+++ b/crypto/keyring/db_keybase.go
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package keyring
 
 import (
+	"encoding/hex"
 	"fmt"
 	"reflect"
 	"strings"
@@ -126,7 +127,7 @@ func (kb dbKeybase) Get(name string) (Info, error) {
 // GetByAddress returns Info based on a provided AccAddress. An error is returned
 // if the address does not exist.
 func (kb dbKeybase) GetByAddress(address types.AccAddress) (Info, error) {
-	ik, err := kb.db.Get(addrKey(address))
+	ik, err := kb.db.Get(addrStringKey(address))
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
@@ -344,7 +345,7 @@ func (kb dbKeybase) Delete(name, passphrase string, skipPass bool) error {
 	batch := kb.db.NewBatch()
 	defer batch.Close()
 
-	batch.Delete(addrKey(info.GetAddress()))
+	batch.Delete(addrStringKey(info.GetAddress()))
 	batch.Delete(infoKey(name))
 
 	return batch.WriteSync()
@@ -414,13 +415,18 @@ func (kb dbKeybase) writeInfo(name string, info Info) {
 	kb.db.SetSync(key, serializedInfo)
 
 	// store a pointer to the infokey by address for fast lookup
-	kb.db.SetSync(addrKey(info.GetAddress()), key)
+	kb.db.SetSync(addrStringKey(info.GetAddress()), key)
 }
 
-func addrKey(address types.AccAddress) []byte {
+// this is to be removed together with dbKeybase and the old Keybase interface
+func addrStringKey(address types.AccAddress) []byte {
 	return []byte(fmt.Sprintf("%s.%s", address.String(), addressSuffix))
 }
 
+func addrHexKey(address types.AccAddress) []byte {
+	return []byte(fmt.Sprintf("%s.%s", hex.EncodeToString(address.Bytes()), addressSuffix))
+}
+
 func infoKey(name string) []byte {
 	return []byte(fmt.Sprintf("%s.%s", name, infoSuffix))
 }
diff --git a/crypto/keyring/keyring.go b/crypto/keyring/keyring.go
index 1752c099ba16..c48e0ba4a9c7 100644
--- a/crypto/keyring/keyring.go
+++ b/crypto/keyring/keyring.go
@@ -178,7 +178,7 @@ func (kb keyringKeybase) Get(name string) (Info, error) {
 
 // GetByAddress fetches a key by address and returns its public information.
 func (kb keyringKeybase) GetByAddress(address types.AccAddress) (Info, error) {
-	ik, err := kb.db.Get(string(addrKey(address)))
+	ik, err := kb.db.Get(string(addrHexKey(address)))
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
@@ -313,7 +313,7 @@ func (kb keyringKeybase) Import(name string, armor string) error {
 	kb.writeInfo(name, info)
 
 	err = kb.db.Set(keyring.Item{
-		Key:  string(addrKey(info.GetAddress())),
+		Key:  string(addrHexKey(info.GetAddress())),
 		Data: infoKey(name),
 	})
 	if err != nil {
@@ -401,7 +401,7 @@ func (kb keyringKeybase) Delete(name, _ string, _ bool) error {
 		return err
 	}
 
-	err = kb.db.Remove(string(addrKey(info.GetAddress())))
+	err = kb.db.Remove(string(addrHexKey(info.GetAddress())))
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
@@ -454,7 +454,7 @@ func (kb keyringKeybase) writeInfo(name string, info Info) {
 	}
 
 	err = kb.db.Set(keyring.Item{
-		Key:  string(addrKey(info.GetAddress())),
+		Key:  string(addrHexKey(info.GetAddress())),
 		Data: key,
 	})
 	if err != nil {