diff --git a/lokimq/lokimq.cpp b/lokimq/lokimq.cpp
index c1d23e6..d1ebfbe 100644
--- a/lokimq/lokimq.cpp
+++ b/lokimq/lokimq.cpp
@@ -178,8 +178,8 @@ void extract_pubkey(zmq::message_t& msg, std::string& pubkey, bool& service_node
     if (pubkey_hex.size() != 64)
         throw std::logic_error("bad user-id");
     assert(is_hex(pubkey_hex.begin(), pubkey_hex.end()));
-    pubkey.reserve(32);
-    from_hex(pubkey_hex.begin() + 2, pubkey_hex.end(), std::back_inserter(pubkey));
+    pubkey.resize(32, 0);
+    from_hex(pubkey_hex.begin(), pubkey_hex.end(), pubkey.begin());
 
     service_node = false;
     try {
@@ -439,6 +439,8 @@ void LokiMQ::worker_thread(unsigned int index) {
                 message.service_node = run.service_node;
                 message.data.clear();
 
+                LMQ_TRACE("Got incoming command from pubkey ", to_hex(message.pubkey), " (SN=", (int) message.service_node, ")");
+
                 if (run.callback->second /*is_request*/) {
                     message.reply_tag = {run.data_parts[0].data<char>(), run.data_parts[0].size()};
                     for (auto it = run.data_parts.begin() + 1; it != run.data_parts.end(); ++it)
@@ -1568,7 +1570,7 @@ void LokiMQ::process_zap_requests(zmq::socket_t &zap_auth) {
                 }
                 LMQ_LOG(info, "Accepted incoming ", (sn ? "service node" : "non-SN client"),
                         " connection with authentication level ", to_string(result.auth),
-                        " from ", string_view{&user_id[2], user_id.size()-2}, " at ", ip);
+                        " from ", user_id, " at ", ip);
 
                 auto& metadata = response_vals[5];
                 if (result.remote_sn)
diff --git a/tests/test_commands.cpp b/tests/test_commands.cpp
index 0f72462..37d7533 100644
--- a/tests/test_commands.cpp
+++ b/tests/test_commands.cpp
@@ -23,6 +23,11 @@ TEST_CASE("basic commands", "[commands]") {
             if (hellos++ % 2 == 0)
                 m.send_back("public.hi");
     });
+    std::string client_pubkey;
+    server.add_command("public", "client.pubkey", [&](Message& m) {
+            client_pubkey = m.pubkey;
+    });
+
     server.start();
 
     LokiMQ client{
@@ -54,9 +59,12 @@ TEST_CASE("basic commands", "[commands]") {
     REQUIRE( pubkey == server.get_pubkey() );
 
     client.send(pubkey, "public.hello");
+    client.send(pubkey, "public.client.pubkey");
+
     std::this_thread::sleep_for(50ms);
     REQUIRE( hellos == 1 );
     REQUIRE( his == 1 );
+    REQUIRE( client_pubkey == client.get_pubkey() );
 
     for (int i = 0; i < 50; i++)
         client.send(pubkey, "public.hello");