diff --git a/internal/utils/configfile.go b/internal/utils/configfile.go
index 036f50358..6beb393f1 100644
--- a/internal/utils/configfile.go
+++ b/internal/utils/configfile.go
@@ -5,13 +5,16 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"strings"
 
+	"gopkg.in/ini.v1"
+
+	"github.com/harmony-one/harmony/internal/params"
 	"github.com/harmony-one/harmony/p2p"
-	ini "gopkg.in/ini.v1"
 )
 
 // WalletProfile contains a section and key value pair map
 type WalletProfile struct {
 	Profile   string
+	ChainID   string
 	Bootnodes []string
 	Shards    int
 	RPCServer [][]p2p.Peer
@@ -37,6 +40,17 @@ func ReadWalletProfile(iniBytes []byte, profile string) (*WalletProfile, error)
 	} else {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("can't find bootnode key")
 	}
+	if sec.HasKey("chain_id") {
+		config.ChainID = sec.Key("chain_id").String()
+	} else {
+		// backward compatibility; use profile name to determine
+		switch strings.ToLower(strings.TrimSpace(profile)) {
+		case "main", "default":
+			config.ChainID = params.MainnetChainID.String()
+		default:
+			config.ChainID = params.TestnetChainID.String()
+		}
+	}
 
 	if sec.HasKey("shards") {
 		config.Shards = sec.Key("shards").MustInt()
diff --git a/internal/utils/configfile_test.go b/internal/utils/configfile_test.go
index 2e7a08d67..081fc1c93 100644
--- a/internal/utils/configfile_test.go
+++ b/internal/utils/configfile_test.go
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import (
 	"reflect"
 	"testing"
 
+	"github.com/harmony-one/harmony/internal/params"
 	"github.com/harmony-one/harmony/p2p"
 )
 
@@ -12,6 +13,7 @@ func TestReadWalletProfile(t *testing.T) {
 	config := []*WalletProfile{
 		{
 			Profile:   "default",
+			ChainID:   params.MainnetChainID.String(),
 			Bootnodes: []string{"127.0.0.1:9000/abcd", "127.0.0.1:9999/daeg"},
 			Shards:    4,
 			RPCServer: [][]p2p.Peer{
@@ -59,6 +61,7 @@ func TestReadWalletProfile(t *testing.T) {
 		},
 		{
 			Profile:   "testnet",
+			ChainID:   params.TestnetChainID.String(),
 			Bootnodes: []string{"192.168.0.1:9990/abcd", "127.0.0.1:8888/daeg"},
 			Shards:    3,
 			RPCServer: [][]p2p.Peer{