Deploying Smart Contracts
After compiling your smart contract, you can deploy it to the Hedera network. The constructor's "init code" includes the contract's entire bytecode. When deploying, the EVM is expected to be supplied with both the smart contract bytecode and the gas required to execute and deploy the contract. Post-deployment, the constructor is removed, leaving only the runtime_bytecode
for future contract interactions.
➡ Solidity Variables and Opcodes
Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)
The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is a run-time environment for executing smart contracts written in EVM native programming languages, like Solidity. The source code must be compiled into bytecode for the EVM to execute a given smart contract.
On Hedera, users can interact with the EVM-compatible environment in several ways. They can submit ContractCreate
, EthereumTransaction
, or make eth_sendRawTransaction
RPC calls with the contract bytecode directly. These various paths allow developers to deploy and manage smart contracts efficiently.
When the EVM receives the bytecode, it will be further broken down into operation codes (opcodes). The EVM opcodes represent the specific instructions it can perform. Each opcode is one byte and has its own gas cost associated with it. The cost per opcode for the Ethereum Cancun hard fork can be found here.
Smart Contract Opcode Example
Reference: https://ethervm.io/
Hyperledger Besu EVM on Hedera
The Hedera network nodes utilize the HyperLedger Besu EVM Client written in Java as an execution layer for Ethereum-type transactions. The codebase is up to date with the current Ethereum Mainnet hard forks. The Besu EVM client library is used without hooks for Ethereum's consensus, networking, and storage features. Instead, Hedera hooks into its own Hashgraph consensus, Gossip communication, and Virtual Merkle Trees components for greater fault tolerance, finality, and scalability.
As of the Hedera Mainnet release 0.50.0
, the Besu EVM client is configured to support the Cancun hard fork of the Ethereum Mainnet, with some modifications.
Cancun Hard Fork
The smart contract platform has been upgraded to support the visible EVM changes introduced in the Cancun hard fork. This includes adding new opcodes for transient storage and memory copy, semantic updates for opcodes introduced certain operations introduced in the Shanghai, London, Istanbul, and Berlin hard forks, except those with changes in block production, data serialization, and the double fee market.
As of the Hedera Services 0.22 release, gas and input data costs are charged. The amount of intrinsic gas consumed is a constant charge that occurs before any code executes. The intrinsic gas cost is 21,000. The associated cost of input data is 16 gas for each byte of data that is not zero and 4 gas for each byte of data that is zero. The amount of intrinsic gas consumed is charged in relation to the data supplied when making a contract call to the function parameters of external contracts. The gas schedule and the fees table can be found in the gas section of this documentation page.
Proto-Danksharding
As an interim solution to full sharding, introduced in the Cancun hard fork, the proto-danksharding offers some of the advantages of sharding with reduced complexity and infrastructure changes that are part of a sharding implementation. This, in turn, opens the gates for adding "blobs" of data to append to blocks to increase data availability further and allow more processing efficiency.
Blobs are big data objects within blocks. These can be utilized to store rollups (Layer 2 solutions) and different kinds of apps requiring big data objects to be stored in an efficient way. This is data off-chain for the validators and requires minimal processing on their part. It reduces the computational load on the network and hence reduces the transaction gas fee.
❌ Blobs supported on Hedera?
Hedera does not provide blobs under EIP-4844. HIP-866 defines how Hedera behaves without blob support. To preserve compatibility and future design space, Hedera will act as if blobs are not being added. This allows existing contracts dependent on blob behavior to function without blobs. Blobs will be prevented from entering the system by prohibiting "Type 3" transactions, which enable blobs. This will keep blobs out of the EVM's concern without affecting other desirable interactions on Hedera.
Solidity Variables and Opcodes
The table below defines the mapping of Solidity variables and operation codes to Hedera. The full list of supported Opcodes for the Cancun hard fork can be found here.
address
The address is a mapping of shard.realm.number (0.0.10) into a 20 byte Solidity address. The address can be a Hedera account ID or contract ID in Solidity format.
block.basefee
BASEFEE
The BASEFEE
opcode will return zero. Hedera does not use the Fee Market mechanism this is designed to support.
block.chainId
CHAINID
The CHAINID
opcode will return 295(hex 0x0127
) for mainnet, 296( hex 0x0128
) for testnet, 297( hex 0x0129
) for previewnet, and 298 (0x12A
) for development networks.
block.coinbase
COINBASE
The COINBASE
operation will return the funding account (Hedera transaction fee collecting account 0.0.98
).
block.number
The index of the record file (not recommended, use block.timestamp
).
block.timestamp
The transaction consensus timestamp.
block.difficulty
Always zero.
block.gaslimit
GASLIMIT
The GASLIMIT
operation will return the gasLimit
of the transaction. The transaction gasLimit
will be the lowest of the gas limit requested in the transaction or a global upper gas limit configured for all smart contracts.
msg.sender
The address of the Hedera contract ID or account ID in Solidity format that called this contract. For the root level or for delegate chains that go to the root, it is the account ID paying for the transaction.
msg.value
The value associated to the transaction associated in tinybar.
tx.origin
The account ID paying for the transaction, regardless of depth.
tx.gasprice
Fixed (varies with the global fee schedule and exchange rate).
selfdestruct
(address payable recipient)
SELFDESTRUCT
Address will not be reusable due to Hedera’s account numbering policies. On SELFDESTRUCT
the contracts HBAR and HTS tokens are transferred to the recipients. If the recipient does not exist or does not have an allowance for any of the HTS tokens, this opcode will fail.
<address>.code
Precompile contract addresses will report no code, including HTS System contract.
<address>.codehash
Precompile contract addresses will report the empty code hash.
PRNGSEED
This opcode returns a random number based on the n-3 record running hash.
delegateCall
Contracts may no longer use delegateCall()
to invoke system contracts. Contracts should instead use the call()
method.
blobVersionedHashesAtIndex
BLOBHASH
The BLOBHASH
operation will return all zeros at all times.
blobBaseFee
BLOBBASEFEE
The BLOBBASEFEE
operation will return
1
at all times.
Limitation on fallback()
/ receive()
Functions in Hedera Smart Contracts
fallback()
/ receive()
Functions in Hedera Smart ContractsWhen developing smart contracts on Hedera, it's important to understand that the fallback()
and receive()
functions do not get triggered when a contract receives HBAR via a crypto transfer.
In Ethereum, these functions act as "catch-all" mechanisms when a contract receives Ether. In Hedera, however, contract balances may change through native HAPI operations, independent of EVM message calls, making it impossible to maintain balance-related invariants with just the fallback()
or receive()
methods.
Impacted Variables
msg.sender
: The address initiating the contract call.msg.value
: The amount of HBAR sent along with the call.
Key Points
Developers should implement explicit functions to handle HBAR transfers.
To disable native operations entirely, consider submitting a Hedera Improvement Proposal (HIP).
Understanding these differences is crucial for anyone developing smart contracts on Hedera, particularly those familiar with Ethereum.
Deploying Your Smart Contract
SDK
You can use a Hedera SDK to deploy your smart contract bytecode to the network. This approach does not require using any EVM tools like Hardhat or an instance of the Hedera JSON-RPC Relay.
Deploy Your First Smart ContractHardhat
Hardhat can be used to deploy your smart contract by pointing to a community-hosted JSON-RPC Relay. However, EVM tools do not support features that are native to Hedera smart contracts like:
Admin Key
Contract Memo
Automatic Token Associations
Auto Renew Account ID
Staking Node ID or Account ID
Decline Staking Rewards
If you need to set any of the above properties for your contract, you will have to call the ContractCreateTransaction
API using one of the Hedera SDKs.
FAQs
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