diff --git a/cmd/tendermint/commands/gen_node_key.go b/cmd/tendermint/commands/gen_node_key.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4990be477
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/tendermint/commands/gen_node_key.go
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+package commands
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+
+	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
+
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/p2p"
+	cmn "github.com/tendermint/tmlibs/common"
+)
+
+// GenNodeKeyCmd allows the generation of a node key. It prints node's ID to
+// the standard output.
+var GenNodeKeyCmd = &cobra.Command{
+	Use:   "gen_node_key",
+	Short: "Generate a node key for this node and print its ID",
+	RunE:  genNodeKey,
+}
+
+func genNodeKey(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
+	nodeKeyFile := config.NodeKeyFile()
+	if cmn.FileExists(nodeKeyFile) {
+		return fmt.Errorf("node key at %s already exists", nodeKeyFile)
+	}
+
+	nodeKey, err := p2p.LoadOrGenNodeKey(nodeKeyFile)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	fmt.Println(nodeKey.ID())
+	return nil
+}
diff --git a/cmd/tendermint/main.go b/cmd/tendermint/main.go
index fd6287115..8c7f0cd17 100644
--- a/cmd/tendermint/main.go
+++ b/cmd/tendermint/main.go
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ func main() {
 		cmd.ShowValidatorCmd,
 		cmd.TestnetFilesCmd,
 		cmd.ShowNodeIDCmd,
+		cmd.GenNodeKeyCmd,
 		cmd.VersionCmd)
 
 	// NOTE: