@nomicfoundation/ethereumjs-common

What is @nomicfoundation/ethereumjs-common?

@nomicfoundation/ethereumjs-common is a library that provides common Ethereum constants, parameters, and functions for various Ethereum networks. It is useful for developers working on Ethereum-based projects who need to handle different network configurations and parameters.

What are @nomicfoundation/ethereumjs-common's main functionalities?

Network Configuration

This feature allows you to create a custom network configuration. The code sample demonstrates how to create a custom network configuration for a network with a specific networkId and chainId.

const Common = require('@nomicfoundation/ethereumjs-common').default;
const mainnetCommon = Common.forCustomChain('mainnet', {
  name: 'custom-network',
  networkId: 1234,
  chainId: 1234,
}, 'istanbul');
console.log(mainnetCommon.chainName());

Hardfork Support

This feature allows you to specify and work with different Ethereum hardforks. The code sample shows how to create a Common instance for the mainnet with the Berlin hardfork.

const Common = require('@nomicfoundation/ethereumjs-common').default;
const common = new Common({ chain: 'mainnet', hardfork: 'berlin' });
console.log(common.hardfork());

Chain Parameters

This feature provides access to various chain parameters such as genesis block information. The code sample demonstrates how to retrieve the genesis block parameters for the Ropsten test network.

const Common = require('@nomicfoundation/ethereumjs-common').default;
const common = new Common({ chain: 'ropsten' });
console.log(common.genesis());

Other packages similar to @nomicfoundation/ethereumjs-common

web3

web3 is a comprehensive library for interacting with the Ethereum blockchain. It provides functionalities for sending transactions, interacting with smart contracts, and more. While it offers some network configuration capabilities, it is more focused on general blockchain interactions compared to the specialized network configuration focus of @nomicfoundation/ethereumjs-common.

ethers

ethers is another popular library for interacting with the Ethereum blockchain. It provides utilities for sending transactions, interacting with smart contracts, and managing wallets. Similar to web3, it includes some network configuration features but is more broadly focused on Ethereum interactions rather than the specific network configuration and parameter management provided by @nomicfoundation/ethereumjs-common.

ethereumjs-tx

ethereumjs-tx is a library for creating and signing Ethereum transactions. It is part of the ethereumjs suite of libraries and focuses on transaction creation and signing. While it can be used in conjunction with @nomicfoundation/ethereumjs-common, it does not provide the same level of network configuration and parameter management.

README

@ethereumjs/common

Resources common to all EthereumJS implementations.

Note: this README reflects the state of the library from v2.0.0 onwards. See README from the standalone repository for an introduction on the last preceding release.

Installation

To obtain the latest version, simply require the project using npm:

npm install @ethereumjs/common

Usage

import / require

import (ESM, TypeScript):

import { Chain, Common, Hardfork } from '@ethereumjs/common

require (CommonJS, Node.js):

const { Common, Chain, Hardfork } = require('@ethereumjs/common')

Parameters

All parameters can be accessed through the Common class, instantiated with an object containing either the chain (e.g. 'Chain.Mainnet') or the chain together with a specific hardfork provided:

// With enums:
const common = new Common({ chain: Chain.Mainnet, hardfork: Hardfork.London })

// (also possible with directly passing in strings:)
const common = new Common({ chain: 'mainnet', hardfork: 'london' })

If no hardfork is provided, the common is initialized with the default hardfork.

Current DEFAULT_HARDFORK: Hardfork.Merge

Here are some simple usage examples:

// Instantiate with the chain (and the default hardfork)
let c = new Common({ chain: Chain.Ropsten })
c.param('gasPrices', 'ecAddGas') // 500

// Chain and hardfork provided
c = new Common({ chain: Chain.Ropsten, hardfork: Hardfork.Byzantium })
c.param('pow', 'minerReward') // 3000000000000000000

// Get bootstrap nodes for chain/network
c.bootstrapNodes() // Array with current nodes

// Instantiate with an EIP activated
c = new Common({ chain: Chain.Mainnet, eips: [2537] })

API

Docs

See the API documentation for a full list of functions for accessing specific chain and depending hardfork parameters. There are also additional helper functions like paramByBlock (topic, name, blockNumber) or hardforkIsActiveOnBlock (hardfork, blockNumber) to ease blockNumber based access to parameters.

Generated TypeDoc API Documentation

BigInt Support

Starting with v4 the usage of BN.js for big numbers has been removed from the library and replaced with the usage of the native JS BigInt data type (introduced in ES2020).

Please note that number-related API signatures have changed along with this version update and the minimal build target has been updated to ES2020.

Events

The Common class is implemented as an EventEmitter and is emitting the following events on which you can react within your code:

Event	Description
hardforkChanged	Emitted when a hardfork change occurs in the Common object

Setup

Chains

The chain can be set in the constructor like this:

const c = new Common({ chain: Chain.Ropsten })

Supported chains:

• mainnet (Chain.Mainnet)
• ropsten (Chain.Ropsten)
• rinkeby (Chain.Rinkeby)
• goerli (Chain.Goerli)
• sepolia (Chain.Sepolia) (v2.6.1+)
• Private/custom chain parameters

The following chain-specific parameters are provided:

• name
• chainId
• networkId
• consensusType (e.g. pow or poa)
• consensusAlgorithm (e.g. ethash or clique)
• consensusConfig (depends on consensusAlgorithm, e.g. period and epoch for clique)
• genesis block header values
• hardforks block numbers
• bootstrapNodes list
• dnsNetworks list (EIP-1459-compliant list of DNS networks for peer discovery)

To get an overview of the different parameters have a look at one of the chain-specific files like mainnet.json in the chains directory, or to the Chain type in ./src/types.ts.

Working with private/custom chains

There are two distinct APIs available for setting up custom(ized) chains.

Basic Chain Customization / Predefined Custom Chains

There is a dedicated Common.custom() static constructor which allows for an easy instantiation of a Common instance with somewhat adopted chain parameters, with the main use case to adopt on instantiating with a deviating chain ID (you can use this to adopt other chain parameters as well though). Instantiating a custom common instance with its own chain ID and inheriting all other parameters from mainnet can now be as easily done as:

const common = Common.custom({ chainId: 1234 })

The custom() method also takes a string as a first input (instead of a dictionary). This can be used in combination with the CustomChain enum dict which allows for the selection of predefined supported custom chains for an easier Common setup of these supported chains:

const common = Common.custom(CustomChain.ArbitrumRinkebyTestnet)

The following custom chains are currently supported:

• PolygonMainnet
• PolygonMumbai
• ArbitrumRinkebyTestnet
• xDaiChain
• OptimisticKovan
• OptimisticEthereum

Common instances created with this simplified custom() constructor can't be used in all usage contexts (the HF configuration is very likely not matching the actual chain) but can be useful for specific use cases, e.g. for sending a tx with @ethereumjs/tx to an L2 network (see the Tx library README for a complete usage example).

Activate with a single custom Chain setup

If you want to initialize a Common instance with a single custom chain which is then directly activated you can pass a dictionary - conforming to the parameter format described above - with your custom chain values to the constructor using the chain parameter or the setChain() method, here is some example:

import myCustomChain from './[PATH]/myCustomChain.json'
const common = new Common({ chain: myCustomChain })

Initialize using customChains Array

A second way for custom chain initialization is to use the customChains constructor option. This option comes with more flexibility and allows for an arbitrary number of custom chains to be initialized on a common instance in addition to the already supported ones. It also allows for an activation-independent initialization, so you can add your chains by adding to the customChains array and either directly use the chain option to activate one of the custom chains passed or activate a build in chain (e.g. mainnet) and switch to other chains - including the custom ones - by using Common.setChain().

import myCustomChain1 from './[PATH]/myCustomChain1.json'
import myCustomChain2 from './[PATH]/myCustomChain2.json'
// Add two custom chains, initial mainnet activation
const common1 = new Common({ chain: 'mainnet', customChains: [myCustomChain1, myCustomChain2] })
// Somewhat later down the road...
common1.setChain('customChain1')
// Add two custom chains, activate customChain1
const common1 = new Common({
  chain: 'customChain1',
  customChains: [myCustomChain1, myCustomChain2],
})

Starting with v3 custom genesis states should be passed to the Blockchain library directly.

Initialize using Geth's genesis json

For lots of custom chains (for e.g. devnets and testnets), you might come across a genesis json config which has both config specification for the chain as well as the genesis state specification. You can derive the common from such configuration in the following manner:

import { Common } from '@ethereumjs/common'

// Load geth genesis json file into lets say `genesisJson` and optional `chain` and `genesisHash`
const common = Common.fromGethGenesis(genesisJson, { chain: 'customChain', genesisHash })
// If you don't have `genesisHash` while initiating common, you can later configure common (for e.g.
// post calculating it via `blockchain`)
common.setForkHashes(genesisHash)

Hardforks

The hardfork can be set in constructor like this:

import { Chain, Common, Hardfork } from '@ethereumjs/common'

const c = new Common({ chain: Chain.Ropsten, hardfork: Hardfork.Byzantium })

Active Hardforks

There are currently parameter changes by the following past and future hardfork by the library supported:

• chainstart (Hardfork.Chainstart)
• homestead (Hardfork.Homestead)
• dao (Hardfork.Dao)
• tangerineWhistle (Hardfork.TangerineWhistle)
• spuriousDragon (Hardfork.SpuriousDragon)
• byzantium (Hardfork.Byzantium)
• constantinople (Hardfork.Constantinople)
• petersburg (Hardfork.Petersburg) (aka constantinopleFix, apply together with constantinople)
• istanbul (Hardfork.Instanbul)
• muirGlacier (Hardfork.MuirGlacier)
• berlin (Hardfork.Berlin) (since v2.2.0)
• london (Hardfork.London) (since v2.4.0)
• merge (Hardfork.Merge) (DEFAULT_HARDFORK) (since v2.5.0)
• shanghai (Hardfork.Shanghai) (since v3.1.0)

Future Hardforks

The next upcoming HF Hardfork.Cancun is currently not yet supported by this library.

Parameter Access

For hardfork-specific parameter access with the param() and paramByBlock() functions you can use the following topics:

• gasConfig
• gasPrices
• vm
• pow
• sharding

See one of the hardfork files like byzantium.json in the hardforks directory for an overview. For consistency, the chain start (chainstart) is considered an own hardfork.

The hardfork-specific json files only contain the deltas from chainstart and shouldn't be accessed directly until you have a specific reason for it.

EIPs

Starting with the v2.0.0 release of the library, EIPs are now native citizens within the library and can be activated like this:

const c = new Common({ chain: Chain.Mainnet, eips: [2537] })

The following EIPs are currently supported:

• EIP-1559: Fee market change for ETH 1.0 chain
• EIP-2315: Simple subroutines for the EVM (experimental)
• EIP-2537: BLS precompiles
• EIP-2565: ModExp gas cost
• EIP-2718: Transaction Types
• EIP-2929: gas cost increases for state access opcodes
• EIP-2930: Optional access list tx type
• EIP-3198: Base fee Opcode
• EIP-3529: Reduction in refunds
• EIP-3540 - EVM Object Format (EOF) v1 (experimental)
• EIP-3541: Reject new contracts starting with the 0xEF byte
• EIP-3554: Difficulty Bomb Delay to December 2021 (only PoW networks)
• EIP-3607: Reject transactions from senders with deployed code
• EIP-3651: Warm COINBASE (Shanghai)
• EIP-3670: EOF - Code Validation (experimental)
• EIP-3675: Upgrade consensus to Proof-of-Stake
• EIP-3855: Push0 opcode (Shanghai)
• EIP-3860: Limit and meter initcode (Shanghai)
• EIP-4345: Difficulty Bomb Delay to June 2022
• EIP-4399: Supplant DIFFICULTY opcode with PREVRANDAO (Merge) (experimental)
• EIP-4895: Beacon chain push withdrawals as operations (Shanghai)

Bootstrap Nodes

You can use common.bootstrapNodes() function to get nodes for a specific chain/network.

EthereumJS

See our organizational documentation for an introduction to EthereumJS as well as information on current standards and best practices. If you want to join for work or carry out improvements on the libraries, please review our contribution guidelines first.

License

MIT