Security News
Introducing the Socket Python SDK
The initial version of the Socket Python SDK is now on PyPI, enabling developers to more easily interact with the Socket REST API in Python projects.
The web3 npm package is a collection of libraries that allow you to interact with a local or remote Ethereum node, using HTTP, IPC, or WebSocket. It provides functionalities for interacting with smart contracts, sending transactions, and querying blockchain data.
Connecting to an Ethereum Node
This feature allows you to connect to an Ethereum node using an HTTP provider. You can replace the URL with your own node's URL or use a service like Infura.
const Web3 = require('web3');
const web3 = new Web3('https://mainnet.infura.io/v3/YOUR_INFURA_PROJECT_ID');
Interacting with Smart Contracts
This feature allows you to interact with smart contracts deployed on the Ethereum blockchain. You need the contract's ABI and address to create a contract instance and call its methods.
const contractABI = [/* ABI array */];
const contractAddress = '0xYourContractAddress';
const contract = new web3.eth.Contract(contractABI, contractAddress);
contract.methods.yourMethod().call().then(console.log);
Sending Transactions
This feature allows you to send transactions on the Ethereum network. You need the sender's account address and private key to sign and send the transaction.
const account = '0xYourAccountAddress';
const privateKey = 'your_private_key';
const tx = {
to: '0xRecipientAddress',
value: web3.utils.toWei('0.1', 'ether'),
gas: 2000000
};
web3.eth.accounts.signTransaction(tx, privateKey).then(signed => {
web3.eth.sendSignedTransaction(signed.rawTransaction)
.on('receipt', console.log);
});
Querying Blockchain Data
This feature allows you to query data from the blockchain, such as retrieving the latest block information.
web3.eth.getBlock('latest').then(console.log);
The ethers.js library aims to be a complete and compact library for interacting with the Ethereum Blockchain and its ecosystem. It provides similar functionalities to web3, such as connecting to Ethereum nodes, interacting with smart contracts, and sending transactions. Ethers.js is known for its smaller size and better documentation.
Truffle is a development environment, testing framework, and asset pipeline for Ethereum. While it provides some overlapping functionalities with web3, such as interacting with smart contracts, it is more focused on the development and deployment of smart contracts.
Embark is a framework for serverless Decentralized Applications using Ethereum, IPFS, and other platforms. It provides functionalities for smart contract management, decentralized storage, and communication, making it a more comprehensive solution compared to web3.
This is the main package of web3.js.
Please read the main README and documentation for more.
You can install the package either using NPM or using Yarn
npm install web3
yarn add web3
All the TypeScript typings are placed in the types
folder.
FAQs
Ethereum JavaScript API
The npm package web3 receives a total of 408,707 weekly downloads. As such, web3 popularity was classified as popular.
We found that web3 demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 4 open source maintainers collaborating on the project.
Did you know?
Socket for GitHub automatically highlights issues in each pull request and monitors the health of all your open source dependencies. Discover the contents of your packages and block harmful activity before you install or update your dependencies.
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