ethers

What is ethers?

The ethers npm package is a library that provides a set of tools to interact with the Ethereum blockchain. It allows users to connect to the Ethereum network, manage wallets and keys, interact with smart contracts, and perform various other blockchain-related operations.

What are ethers's main functionalities?

Connecting to Ethereum Network

This code sample demonstrates how to connect to the Ethereum network using ethers with an Infura provider.

const { ethers } = require('ethers');
const provider = new ethers.providers.JsonRpcProvider('https://mainnet.infura.io/v3/YOUR_INFURA_API_KEY');

Wallet Management

This code sample shows how to create a new wallet from a private key and connect it to an Ethereum provider.

const { ethers } = require('ethers');
const wallet = new ethers.Wallet('YOUR_PRIVATE_KEY');
const connectedWallet = wallet.connect(provider);

Interacting with Smart Contracts

This code sample illustrates how to interact with a smart contract by creating a contract instance and calling one of its functions.

const { ethers } = require('ethers');
const abi = [...] // Contract ABI
const contractAddress = '0x...'; // Contract address
const contract = new ethers.Contract(contractAddress, abi, provider);
const value = await contract.someFunction();

Sending Transactions

This code sample demonstrates how to send a transaction to the Ethereum network using a wallet instance.

const { ethers } = require('ethers');
const tx = {
  to: '0x...',
  value: ethers.utils.parseEther('1.0'),
  gasLimit: 21000,
  gasPrice: ethers.utils.parseUnits('10', 'gwei')
};
const sendPromise = wallet.sendTransaction(tx);

Querying Blockchain Data

This code sample shows how to query blockchain data, such as retrieving the latest block number and details of a specific block.

const { ethers } = require('ethers');
const blockNumber = await provider.getBlockNumber();
const block = await provider.getBlock(blockNumber);

Other packages similar to ethers

truffle-contract

Truffle Contract is part of the Truffle Suite and is designed to provide a more comfortable abstraction for interacting with Ethereum smart contracts. It is often used in combination with other Truffle tools for development, testing, and deployment. While it offers similar contract interaction capabilities, it is more tightly integrated with the Truffle development environment compared to ethers.

drizzle

Drizzle is a collection of front-end libraries that make writing dApp front-ends easier and more predictable. It is part of the Truffle Suite and is designed to work with a Redux store. Drizzle provides reactive contract data fetching and transaction processing, which can be more convenient for dApp development. However, it is more opinionated and specific to front-end development compared to ethers, which is more general-purpose.

README

ethers.js

Complete Ethereum wallet implementation and utilities in JavaScript.

Features:

• Keep your private keys in your client, safe and sound
• Import and export JSON wallets (Geth and crowdsale) and brain wallets
• Import and export BIP 39 mnemonic phrases (12 word backup phrases) and HD Wallets
• Meta-classes create JavaScript objects from any contract ABI
• Connect to Ethereum nodes over JSON-RPC, INFURA or Etherscan
• Tiny (~77kb compressed; 227kb uncompressed)
• Complete functionality for all your Ethereum needs
• Extensive documentation
• MIT License (including ALL dependencies); completely open source to do with as you please

Installing

To use in a browser:

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdn.ethers.io/scripts/ethers-2.0.min.js">
</script>

To use in node.js:

/Users/ethers/my-app> npm install --save ethers

Documentation

Browse the API Documentation online.

Documentation is generated using Sphinx and can be browsed locally from the /docs/build/html directory.

License

Completely MIT Licensed. Including ALL dependencies.