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 (Umbrella Package)

This is a beta version of the next release of ethers. Please do not use it in production yet.

This package is an umbrella package, comprising of all ethers sub-packages and utilities.

License

MIT License. (Including all dependencies)