Smart Contract Development with Harthat

Setup Hardhat project

Create a project directory and setup Hardhat according to tutorial:

npm init
npm install --save-dev hardhat

You can start your development by creating the project:

npx hardhat

Configure Hardhat for Testnet

We need dotenv module relatively security store the private key for deployment:

npm install --save-dev dotenv

Now edit hardhat.config.js to include:

the following line at the global scope:

require('dotenv').config(); // read .env file and update process.env if present

include the following lines (merge as necessary)

module.exports = {
  networks: {
    testnet: {
       chainId: 942,
       url: "https://rpc.v3.testnet.pulsechain.com",
       accounts: (process.env.PKEYS || '').split(','),
       gasPrice: 50000000000,
    }
  },
  etherscan: { // needed for contract verification
   apiKey: {
      testnet: '0',
   }
  }
};

Now create or edit .env file in your project directory to have the following content:

PKEYS="1234...98,ABCD...EF"

This file will define private keys into environment variable PKEYS passed to the HDWalletProvider instance.

Never commit or share the .env file! Although you can alternatively set PKEYS environment variable in your shell, keep in mind it may be saved with shell’s history.

Compiler version

You need to use Solidity compiler version at least 0.8.7+. You can install specific solc package like this:

npm install [email protected]

Then you need to adjust compiler version to be used in hardhat.config.js under the module.exports → solidity key.

Deploy to PulseChain

Before your start make sure you have tPLS or PLS for gas available on your account specified by the PKEYS (see above). You also need a deploy scripts, in the example below referred to as scripts/deploy.js. You can deploy your smart contracts as:

npx hardhat run scripts/deploy.js --network testnet

Your deploy script should contain some code to print out address of the deployed contract - it usually looks like this:

...
const contract = await YourContract.deploy();
console.log("YourContract address:", contract.address);
...

You will need the contract’s address for contract verification below.

If you intend to verify your contract on PulseScan you have to use Windows line endings in you .sol files.

Contract verification

You can use hardhat Etherscan plugin to verify smart contract with PulseScan. Start by installing the plugin:

npm install --save-dev @nomiclabs/hardhat-etherscan

Then add the following statements to your hardhat.config.js at the global scope:

require("@nomiclabs/hardhat-etherscan");
const { chainConfig } = require("@nomiclabs/hardhat-etherscan/dist/src/ChainConfig");
chainConfig['testnet'] = {
  chainId: 942,
  urls: {
    apiURL: "https://scan.v3.testnet.pulsechain.com/api",
    browserURL: "https://scan.v3.testnet.pulsechain.com",
  },
}

Before you proceed with contract verification make sure the contract is indexed by PulseScan. When you open the address of your smart contract in PulseScan you should see your Contract Creation Success transaction as well as the Code tab.

Now you should be able to verify your contract:

npx hardhat verify --network testnet 0xDEPLOYED_CONTRACT_ADDRESS <Constructor argument>

This command can take a while and there were cases when it got stuck. While waiting for verification you can also check manually the Code tab on PulseScan, if the contract is shown as verified there, you can stop the command.

PREVIOUSPHUX