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Ethers.js JavaScript Library

Intro diagram

Introduction

The ethers.js library provides a set of tools to interact with Ethereum Nodes with JavaScript, similar to web3.js. Moonbeam has an Ethereum-like API available that is fully compatible with Ethereum-style JSON RPC invocations. Therefore, developers can leverage this compatibility and use the ethers.js library to interact with a Moonbeam node as if they were doing so on Ethereum. You can read more about ethers.js on this blog post.

Setup Ethers.js with Moonbeam

To get started with the ethers.js library, install it using the following command:

npm install ethers

Once done, the simplest setup to start using the library and its methods is the following:

const ethers = require('ethers');

// Variables definition
const privKey = '0xPRIVKEY';

// Define Provider
const provider = new ethers.providers.StaticJsonRpcProvider('RPC_URL', {
    chainId: ChainId,
    name: 'NETWORK_NAME'
});

// Create Wallet
let wallet = new ethers.Wallet(privKey, provider);

Different methods are available inside provider and wallet. Depending on which network you want to connect to, you can set the RPC_URL to the following values:

Moonbeam development node:

  • RPC_URL: http://127.0.0.1:9933
  • ChainId: 1281
  • NETWORK_NAME: moonbeam-development

Moonbase Alpha TestNet:

  • RPC_URL: https://rpc.testnet.moonbeam.network
  • ChainId: 1287
  • NETWORK_NAME: moonbase-alpha

Moonriver:

  • RPC_URL: https://rpc.moonriver.moonbeam.network
  • ChainID: 1285
  • NETWORK_NAME: moonriver

Step-by-step Tutorials

If you are interested in a more detailed step-by-step guide, you can go to our specific tutorials on using ethers.js on Moonbeam to send a transaction or deploy a contract.