Create and fund account

Hello World sequence: Create a new account on Hedera Testnet, and fund it. Do this before any of the other Hello World sequences.

Why you need to create and fund an account

Hedera is a distributed ledger technology (DLT). To interact with it, you will need to send transactions to the network, which will then process them and add them to the ledger if they are deemed to be valid. On most web services (web2), you need to authenticate using usernames and passwords to operate your account. On DLTs such as Hedera, it is similar, except that you will need to use cryptographic keys instead of passwords to operate your account. One key difference is that unlike web2, each interaction needs to be paid for using the native currency of the DLT, which is similar to micro-transactions. On Hedera, this currency is HBAR.

What you will accomplish

Prerequisites

Before you begin, you should be familiar with the following:

Also, you should have the following set up on your computer ⬇

Get started

Set up project

To follow along, start with the main branch, which is the default branch of this repo. This gives you the initial state from which you can follow along with the steps as described in the tutorial.

git clone https://github.com/hedera-dev/hello-future-world.git
Alternative with `git` and SSH

If you have configured SSH to work with git, you may wish use this command instead:

git clone git@github.com:hedera-dev/hello-future-world.git

In the terminal, from the hello-future-world directory, enter the subdirectory for this sequence.

cd 00-create-fund-account/

Install the dependencies using npm.

npm install

Create your .env file

Make a .env file by copying the provided .env.sample file. Then open the .env file in a code editor, such as VS Code.

cp .env.sample .env

Checkpoint

Check your prerequisites and project set up ⬇

In your terminal, enter the following command.

node checkpoint-setup.js

This script checks multiple set up related items, and should produce output like this:

git check:
OK!
git version check:
OK!
node version check:
OK!
npm version check:
OK!
npm install check:
OK!
.env file check:
OK!
shell check:
OK!

If the output contains any errors, please address them before continuing with the rest of this sequence.

Generate seed phrase

In the terminal, run the following command:

npx mnemonics@1.1.3

This should output a seed phrase, a list of 12 randomly selected dictionary words, for example:

artefact gasp crop double silk grid visual gather argue glow melody net
Alternative way to generate a seed phrase

  • Visit https://iancoleman.io/bip39/

  • Select 12 from the dropdown next to the GENERATE button

  • Press the GENERATE button

  • Copy the seed phrase from the text field labelled BIP39 Mnemonic.

Note that mnemonics is a tool that generates BIP-39 seed phrases, and your seed phrase will be different from above.

If this is your first time running this command, you need to enter y to agree to do so:

Need to install the following packages:
mnemonics@1.1.3
Ok to proceed? (y)

This seed phrase will be used to generate the cryptographic keys for the accounts that you are about to create.

Copy the seed phrase. Replace SEED_PHRASE in the .env file with it. The file contents should now look similar to this:

.env
SEED_PHRASE="artefact gasp crop double silk grid visual gather argue glow melody net"
ACCOUNT_PRIVATE_KEY=YOUR_HEX_ENCODED_PRIVATE_KEY
ACCOUNT_ID=YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID
RPC_URL=YOUR_JSON_RPC_URL

You do not need to modify the other values in the .env file yet.

Be sure to save your files before moving on to the next step.

Write the script

An almost-complete script has already been prepared for you, and you will only need to make a few modifications (outlined below) for it to run successfully.

Open the script file, script-create-fund-account.js, in a code editor.

To follow along in the tutorial, when asked to modify code, look for a comment to locate the specific lines of code which you will need to edit.

For example, the comment for Step 1 looks like this:

    // Step (1) in the accompanying tutorial

Step 1: Derive private key

The ethersHdNode module has been imported from EthersJs. This takes a seed phrase as input, and outputs a private key. To do so, invoke the fromMnemonic() method and pass in process.env.SEED_PHRASE as the parameter:

script-create-fund-account.js
    const hdNodeRoot = ethersHdNode.fromMnemonic(process.env.SEED_PHRASE);

You will need to delete the inline comment that looks like this: /* ... */. Replace it with the correct code. For example, in this step, the change looks like this:

-    const hdNodeRoot = ethersHdNode.fromMnemonic(/* ... */);
+    const hdNodeRoot = ethersHdNode.fromMnemonic(process.env.SEED_PHRASE);

The hdNodeRoot instance is subsequently used to generate the private keys.

Step 2: Derive EVM address

A privateKey instance has been initialized. This requires no further input to derive an EVM address - read its publicKey property, and then invoke its toEvmAddress method:

script-create-fund-account.js
    const evmAddress = `0x${privateKey.publicKey.toEvmAddress()}`;

Run the script

In the terminal, run the script using the following command:

node script-create-fund-account.js

This should produce output similar to the following:

privateKeyHex: 0x0ac20a3c1573ba9a5c6c69349fa51f40bd502cf250e226a7100869338f15aae2
evmAddress: 0x61b47b6aa6595a6546873fc831331f36639c906f
accountExplorerUrl: https://hashscan.io/testnet/account/0x61b47b6aa6595a6546873fc831331f36639c906f
accountId: undefined
accountBalanceHbar: undefined

Note that accountId and accountBalanceHbar are both undefined, because generating cryptographic keys alone is not enough to create an account - that only happens upon the first transaction.

Copy the value of privateKeyHex. Replace YOUR_HEX_ENCODED_PRIVATE_KEY in the .env file with it. The file contents should now look similar to this:

.env
SEED_PHRASE="artefact gasp crop double silk grid visual gather argue glow melody net"
ACCOUNT_PRIVATE_KEY=0x0ac20a3c1573ba9a5c6c69349fa51f40bd502cf250e226a7100869338f15aae2
ACCOUNT_ID=YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID
RPC_URL=YOUR_JSON_RPC_URL

Copy the value of accountExplorerUrl and visit this in your browser.

You should see a page with:

  • The title "Inactive EVM Address" (1)

  • "Account ID: Assigned upon activation" (2)

  • "EVM Address:" matching the value of evmAddress output earlier (3)

  • A helpful hint saying "Own this account? Activate it by transferring any amount of ℏ or tokens to ..." (4)

This is precisely the next step!

Transfer and activate account

Visit portal.hedera.com/faucet.

The faucet dispenses Testnet HBAR to any account on Hedera Testnet. When it is asked to dispense to an EVM address that does not yet have an account, the account gets created as part of the HBAR transfer transaction.

  • Paste the value of evmAddress output earlier into the "enter wallet address" field (1)

  • Press the "receive testnet HBAR" button (2)

A confirmation dialog will pop up.

  • Complete the ReCaptcha (1)

  • Press the "confirm transaction" button. (2)

A success dialog will pop up.

  • The account ID is displayed (1)

    • This indicates that the Testnet HBAR has been transferred, and in the process a new account has been created.

    • Note that the EVM address is not the same as the account ID - instead the EVM address is an alias of the account ID.

  • Press the icon to copy the account ID (2)

Replace YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID in the .env file with it. The file contents should now look similar to this:

.env
SEED_PHRASE="artefact gasp crop double silk grid visual gather argue glow melody net"
ACCOUNT_PRIVATE_KEY=0x0ac20a3c1573ba9a5c6c69349fa51f40bd502cf250e226a7100869338f15aae2
ACCOUNT_ID=0.0.2667268
RPC_URL=YOUR_JSON_RPC_URL

You may have noticed that RPC_URL is unused throughout. This is intentional - as it will be used in some of the other Hello World sequences, so be sure to check them out after completing this one!

Refresh the Hashscan page in your browser. Note that this is the accountExplorerUrl that was output from the previous run of the script. This time you should see:

  • The title is "Account" (1)

    • instead of "Inactive EVM Address"

  • The "Account ID" field should matching the value of ACCOUNT_ID above (2)

    • instead of "Assigned upon activation"

  • The "Create Transaction" field displays a transaction ID (3)

Verify account creation and funding

In the terminal, re-run the script using the following command:

node script-create-fund-account.js

This should produce output similar to the following:

privateKeyHex: 0x0ac20a3c1573ba9a5c6c69349fa51f40bd502cf250e226a7100869338f15aae2
evmAddress: 0x61b47b6aa6595a6546873fc831331f36639c906f
accountExplorerUrl: https://hashscan.io/testnet/account/0x61b47b6aa6595a6546873fc831331f36639c906f
accountId: 0.0.2667268
accountBalanceHbar: 100.00000000

Note that this is almost the same as when you first ran the same script. The difference is that previously both accountId and accountBalanceHbar were undefined; and now accountId should now show a value (in the format of 0.0.XYZ), and accountBalanceHbar should now show a number (with 8 decimal places). This is because the account has been created and funded.

🎉 Now you are ready to start using your Hedera Testnet account from the portal within script files on your computer! 🎉

Complete

Congratulations, you have completed the create and fund account Hello World sequence! 🎉🎉🎉

You have learned how to:

Next Steps

Now that you have an account on Hedera Testnet and it is funded, you can interact with the Hedera network. Continue by following along with the other Hello World sequences.

Cheat sheet

Skip to final state

The repo, github.com/hedera-dev/hello-future-world, is intended to be used alongside this tutorial.

To skip ahead to the final state, use the completed branch. You may use this to compare your implementation to the completed steps of the tutorial.

git fetch origin completed:completed
git checkout completed

Alternatively, you may view the completed branch on Github: github.com/hedera-dev/hello-future-world/tree/completed/00-create-fund-account

Writer: Brendan Editors: Abi, Michiel, Ryan, Krystal

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