Ethereum applications are defined as one or more smart contract, each of which live at an address on the Ethereum blockchain. To interact with one, the first thing we need is its address.
We are going to work with a brilliant, very exciting, fortune cookie application. Finally you will learn the truth about your future. And you don’t have to just trust me on that. The blockchain is trustless, right?
Anyway, the address of out fortune application is 0x82ea8ab1e836272322f376a5f71d5a34a71688f1. This is not my address or your address. It is the public address of the application itself.
As you can see, an Ethereum address is a long stupid string of “hex” digits that would be very annoying and error prone to type. So try never to type one! When absolutely you need to, copy and paste the address, and then double check that you didn’t drop any digits. But much better yet, sbt-ethereum permits you to define easy to use, tab-completable names as “address aliases”. So, let’s do it.
The command we’ll need is ethAddressAliasSet. But we might not remember that! We can check the ethAddress* docs, or use tab completion to help us find our command, and figure out what arguments it needs.
Figuring out our command via tab completion
We are trying to set an address alias. It’s an Address thing, so we can do ethA<tab> to get to the ethAddress* submenu and hit <tab> again:
sbt:eth-command-line> ethAddress
ethAddressAliasCheck ethAddressAliasDrop ethAddressAliasList ethAddressAliasSet ethAddressBalance ethAddressSenderDefaultDrop
ethAddressSenderDefaultPrint ethAddressSenderDefaultSet ethAddressSenderOverrideDrop ethAddressSenderOverridePrint ethAddressSenderOverrideSet ethAddressSenderPrint
sbt:eth-command-line> ethAddress
It’s a Alias-related thing, so we add A<tab>:
sbt:eth-command-line> ethAddressAlias
ethAddressAliasCheck ethAddressAliasDrop ethAddressAliasList ethAddressAliasSet
sbt:eth-command-line> ethAddressAlias
Of those, it’s probably ethAddressAliasSet that we want to, um, set an alias. So we try S<tab>.
sbt:eth-command-line> ethAddressAliasSet
But then we’ll want to see if it takes any arguments, so we type <space><tab>.
sbt:eth-command-line> ethAddressAliasSet
<alias>
sbt:eth-command-line> ethAddressAliasSet
The command’s first argument is an alias, so let’s give it that. This application is a fortune cookie, so let’s just call our alias fortune.
sbt:eth-command-line> ethAddressAliasSet fortune
The command might take more than one argument. So let’s type <space><tab> again:
sbt:eth-command-line> ethAddressAliasSet fortune
<address-hex> <ens-name>.eth default-sender
sbt:eth-command-line> ethAddressAliasSet fortune
This is what it looks like when a command is asking for an Ethereum address. In sbt-ethereum, an address can take the form of a long hex string — <address-hex>, an ENS name <ens-name>.eth (see the box below), or one of the aliases that has already been defined. When we set the default sender in Getting Started, an alias called default-sender was automatically defined.
For the fortune application, what we have is a hex address.
sbt:eth-command-line> ethAddressAliasSet fortune 0x82ea8ab1e836272322f376a5f71d5a34a71688f1
Just to be sure that the ethAddressAliasSet task doesn’t require yet another argument, we type <space><tab> at the end of that:
sbt:eth-command-line> ethAddressAliasSet fortune 0x82ea8ab1e836272322f376a5f71d5a34a71688f1
{invalid input}
sbt:eth-command-line> ethAddressAliasSet fortune 0x82ea8ab1e836272322f376a5f71d5a34a71688f1
The response {invalid input} means there are no other arguments we can provide. So, just hit <return>!
Once we’ve figured out our command…
sbt:eth-command-line> ethAddressAliasSet fortune 0x82ea8ab1e836272322f376a5f71d5a34a71688f1
[info] Alias 'fortune' now points to address '0x82ea8ab1e836272322f376a5f71d5a34a71688f1' (for chain with ID 1).
[info] Refreshing caches.
[success] Total time: 0 s, completed Dec 12, 2018 4:08:37 PM
To make sure that it took, let’s list our address aliases:
sbt:eth-command-line> ethAddressAliasList
default-sender -> 0x1144f4f7aad0c463c667e0f8d73fc13f1e7e86a2
fortune -> 0x82ea8ab1e836272322f376a5f71d5a34a71688f1
[success] Total time: 0 s, completed Dec 12, 2018 4:09:34 PM
Remember that even though we haven’t explicitly defined an alias, if we set up a default address (as we did in Getting Started), there will automatically be a default-sender alias to that address.
We do also have the alias fortune, which we’ve just defined. Success!
Some Ethereum addresses have public ENS names, easy-to-use names that usually ends with .eth.
sbt-ethereum supports the use of ENS names in place of an address wherever addresses are used, if an address has been associated with the name.
But you have to pay for public names, most simple ones are already taken (and they take a few days to acquire).
For internal use, it’s often more convenient to use address aliases.
In order to interact with an Ethereum smart contract, we usually require a description of its functions, called an ABI (or Application Binary Interface), so that we know what we can do with it and how to work with it. The ABI is a bit of “JSON-formatted text”. (You don’t have to know what that means, but we’ll see an example below!)
sbt-ethereum supports several different ways to associate an ABI with the address of the smart contract it describes. But before we do that, we need to find the ABI. Sometimes, you may get an ABI directly from the author of your smart contract. If you come to develop your own smart contracts, sbt-ethereum will automatically generate and retain ABIs for you. But often, we need to find an ABI that has been published somewhere.
At this writing, a very useful repository of ABIs is Etherscan. Etherscan only stores ABIs which the site itself has verified, which offers an extra level of confidence (although of course, we are trusting Etherscan and its verification process if we use them as a source).
First, let’s manually copy and paste our contract’s ABI from Etherscan. Let’s find it:
0x82ea8ab1e836272322f376a5f71d5a34a71688f1 — into the search field in the upper right and hit “Go”. ( Etherscan doesn’t know anything about our sbt-ethereum alias fortune, so we can’t use that! )Now that we have access to the ABI, we can import it into our sbt-ethereum shoebox database:
sbt:eth-command-line> ethContractAbiImport fortune
[warn] No Etherscan API key has been set, so you will have to directly paste the ABI.
[warn] Consider acquiring an API key from Etherscan, and setting it via 'etherscanApiKeyImport'.
Contract ABI:
The ethContractAbiImport command requires the address we want to associate the ABI with as an argument. We could have supplied the long hex address but why? We’ve defined an easy to use alias fortune. (Remember, always, to use tab completion so sbt-ethereum’s long names don’t drive you nuts. Typing ethC<tab>A<tab>I<tab> f<tab> would get us there!)
ethContractAbiImport is an interactive command. It is prompting us for what it needs, in this case the contract ABI. We copy and paste that from the Etherscan page. Yes it is long (many are much longer). Copy the whole thing, or use the “Copy” button on the upper right of the ABI on the Etherscan page. After you have pasted it in, hit <return>.
sbt:eth-command-line> ethContractAbiImport fortune
[warn] No Etherscan API key has been set, so you will have to directly paste the ABI.
[warn] Consider acquiring an API key from Etherscan, and setting it via 'etherscanApiKeyImport'.
Contract ABI: [{"constant":false,"inputs":[{"name":"fortune","type":"string"}],"name":"addFortune","outputs":[],"payable":false,"stateMutability":"nonpayable","type":"function"},{"constant":true,"inputs":[{"name":"","type":"uint256"}],"name":"fortunes","outputs":[{"name":"","type":"string"}],"payable":false,"stateMutability":"view","type":"function"},{"constant":true,"inputs":[],"name":"drawFortune","outputs":[{"name":"fortune","type":"string"}],"payable":false,"stateMutability":"view","type":"function"},{"constant":true,"inputs":[],"name":"countFortunes","outputs":[{"name":"count","type":"uint256"}],"payable":false,"stateMutability":"view","type":"function"},{"inputs":[{"name":"initialFortune","type":"string"}],"payable":false,"stateMutability":"nonpayable","type":"constructor"},{"anonymous":false,"inputs":[{"indexed":false,"name":"author","type":"address"},{"indexed":false,"name":"fortune","type":"string"}],"name":"FortuneAdded","type":"event"}]
[info] A default ABI is now known for the contract at address 0x82ea8ab1e836272322f376a5f71d5a34a71688f1
[info] Refreshing caches.
[success] Total time: 176 s, completed Dec 12, 2018 5:00:48 PM
Yay! We’ve associated the contract’s ABI with its address.
On the same Etherscan page where we found the ABI you can find the source code of the fortune smart contract.
If you are interested in understanding Ethereum programming, you may want to review that code and refer to it as we work with the smart contract. But you don’t have to. You can interact with Ethereum smart contracts without understanding their code, but then you do then have to trust developers or reviewers of the code to correctly explain what the smart contract does.
The code of the fortune contract is very simple. You may find you can make sense of it.
Manually copying and pasting ABIs gets old if we need to do it a lot. With a quick, one-time setup, we can really streamline the process.
The one-time set-up:
87ZVGM4Q4RRMGPSY761MMJZRWYU1RUW339 (but not that — get your own damned key!).Once you have an “Api-Key Token” available, you are ready to go. Again, use your own damned API-KEY, not the example key shown below.
sbt:eth-command-line> etherscanApiKeySet 87ZVGM4Q4RRMGPSY761MMJZRWYU1RUW339
Etherscan API key successfully set.
[success] Total time: 0 s, completed Dec 12, 2018 5:18:15 PM
Now we can run the same command that we did before, but it will go more easily:
sbt:eth-command-line> ethContractAbiImport fortune
An ABI for '0x82ea8ab1e836272322f376a5f71d5a34a71688f1' on chain with ID 1 has already been set. Overwrite? [y/n] y
An Etherscan API key has been set. Would you like to try to import the ABI for this address from Etherscan? [y/n] y
Attempting to fetch ABI for address '0x82ea8ab1e836272322f376a5f71d5a34a71688f1' from Etherscan.
ABI found:
[{"name":"addFortune","inputs":[{"name":"fortune","type":"string"}],"outputs":[],"constant":false,"payable":false,"stateMutability":"nonpayable","type":"function"},{"name":"fortunes","inputs":[{"name":"","type":"uint256"}],"outputs":[{"name":"","type":"string"}],"constant":true,"payable":false,"stateMutability":"view","type":"function"},{"name":"drawFortune","inputs":[],"outputs":[{"name":"fortune","type":"string"}],"constant":true,"payable":false,"stateMutability":"view","type":"function"},{"name":"countFortunes","inputs":[],"outputs":[{"name":"count","type":"uint256"}],"constant":true,"payable":false,"stateMutability":"view","type":"function"},{"name":"FortuneAdded","inputs":[{"name":"author","type":"address","indexed":false},{"name":"fortune","type":"string","indexed":false}],"anonymous":false,"type":"event"},{"inputs":[{"name":"initialFortune","type":"string"}],"payable":false,"stateMutability":"nonpayable","type":"constructor"}]
Use this ABI? [y/n] y
[info] A default ABI is now known for the contract at address 0x82ea8ab1e836272322f376a5f71d5a34a71688f1
[info] Refreshing caches.
[success] Total time: 13 s, completed Dec 12, 2018 5:19:41 PM
Now sbt-ethereum automatically finds and downloads from Etherscan the same ABI that we copied and pasted by hand. The Etherscan API-KEY you have set is retained for you by sbt-ethereum, and is pretty much permanent. From now on, you can use ethContractAbiImport to import ABIs from Etherscan without further ceremony.
The methods of an Ethereum smart contract are the paths through which you interact with it. In sbt-ethereum, you use ethTransactionView to access methods that just “look up” information from or about a smart contract witout changing anything, and ethTransactionInvoke to make changes.
Let’s learn our fortune. Let’s begin by trying the command ethTransactionView, which allows us to access some, but not all, of the methods of an Ethereum smart contract, and let’s us see the result. We’ll tab-complete through the process of calling the command. Type ethT<tab>V<tab><tab>, and you should see something like this:
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionView
/ :: <address-hex> <ens-name>.eth default-sender fortune
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionView
Hmm…
Whenever you see ‘/’ and ‘::’ in your tab completion, you’ve reached the end of a task name.
Usually, you will want to price <space> to complete the task name and then <tab> to see just the arguments to the command.
Type <space><tab>:
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionView
<address-hex> <ens-name>.eth default-sender fortune
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionView
The task ethTransactionView is asking for an Ethereum address as its first argument, which may take the form of a long hex String, an ENS name, or an address alias. We want to work with the smart contract at the address we have already named fortune. So we can type f<tab><tab> from here:
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionView fortune
countFortunes drawFortune fortunes
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionView fortune
countFortunes, drawFortune, and fortunes are methods of the smart contract at that address. sbt-ethereum knows that, because we have associated the contract’s ABI with its address. Let’s try drawFortune (which is the central method of this very very very exciting application). We just have to type d<tab>.
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionView fortune drawFortune
Then we type <space><tab> to see whether the method requires arguments.
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionView fortune drawFortune
{invalid input}
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionView fortune drawFortune
{invalid input} means there is nothing more to complete, which means the drawFortune method does not require any arguments. We just press <return>.
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionView fortune drawFortune
[info] The function 'drawFortune' yields 1 result.
[info] + Result 1 of type 'string', named 'fortune', is "Against all evidence, all will be well."
[success] Total time: 0 s, completed Dec 15, 2018 11:57:51 PM
Congratulations! You’ve run a method of an Ethereum smart contract. If you wait 30 seconds and try again, you’ll probably (but not necessarily!) see something different:
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionView fortune drawFortune
[info] The function 'drawFortune' yields 1 result.
[info] + Result 1 of type 'string', named 'fortune', is "This is going to be an amazing day!"
[success] Total time: 0 s, completed Dec 16, 2018 12:01:19 AM
The Fortune smart contract contains a list of fortunes from which it “randomly” selects one when we call drawFortune. This “random number” changes approximately 15 seconds.
Let’s try another of the methods that were available to us:
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionView fortune countFortunes
[info] The function 'countFortunes' yields 1 result.
[info] + Result 1 of type 'uint256', named 'count', is 10
[success] Total time: 0 s, completed Dec 16, 2018 12:02:54 AM
This tells us that the list of available fortunes is currently 10 long.
Let’s try the final method that was available to us:
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionView fortune fortunes
[error] Expected '"'
[error] Expected non-double-quote-space character
[error] ethTransactionView fortune fortunes
[error] ^
sbt:eth-command-line>
This is not a very clear or informative error message, but basically, sbt is telling us that something more was expected than what we typed. Let’s try again with ethTransactionView fortune fortunes, but then type <space><tab> to see what else we need.
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionView fortune fortunes
<mapping key, of type uint256>
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionView fortune fortunes
sbt_ethereum is telling us that the method requires an argument, a “mapping key” in this case of type “uint256”. “uint” means "unsigned integer. It is a fancy way of saying that the method expects a number. Let’s try the number 6:
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionView fortune fortunes 6
[info] The function 'fortunes' yields 1 result.
[info] + Result 1 of type 'string' is "This is going to be an amazing day!"
[success] Total time: 1 s, completed Dec 16, 2018 12:21:36 AM
The fortunes method lets you see all of the fortunes in the application’s list. countFortunes told us there were 10 fortunes, which would be numbered from 0 through 9. What happens if we ask for fortune number 999?
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionView fortune fortunes 999
[error] com.mchange.sc.v2.jsonrpc.package$JsonrpcException: gas required exceeds allowance or always failing transaction [code=-32000]: No further information
[error] at com.mchange.sc.v2.jsonrpc.Response$Error.vomit(Response.scala:12)
[error] at com.mchange.sc.v1.consuela.ethereum.jsonrpc.Client$Implementation$Exchanger.$anonfun$responseHandler$1(Client.scala:282)
[error] at scala.util.Success.$anonfun$map$1(Try.scala:251)
[error] at scala.util.Success.map(Try.scala:209)
[error] at scala.concurrent.Future.$anonfun$map$1(Future.scala:288)
[error] at scala.concurrent.impl.Promise.liftedTree1$1(Promise.scala:29)
[error] at scala.concurrent.impl.Promise.$anonfun$transform$1(Promise.scala:29)
[error] at scala.concurrent.impl.CallbackRunnable.run(Promise.scala:60)
[error] at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinTask$RunnableExecuteAction.exec(ForkJoinTask.java:1402)
[error] at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinTask.doExec(ForkJoinTask.java:289)
[error] at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool$WorkQueue.runTask(ForkJoinPool.java:1056)
[error] at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool.runWorker(ForkJoinPool.java:1692)
[error] at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinWorkerThread.run(ForkJoinWorkerThread.java:157)
[error] (Compile / ethTransactionView) com.mchange.sc.v2.jsonrpc.package$JsonrpcException: gas required exceeds allowance or always failing transaction [code=-32000]: No further information
[error] Total time: 1 s, completed Dec 16, 2018 12:43:47 AM
The error message is not very helpful, but this is often what you see when you try to do something with an Ethereum smart contract that just doesn’t work.
Let’s remember how we saw the methods we could access in the Fortune application:.
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionView fortune
countFortunes drawFortune fortunes
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionView fortune
Let’s try a different task ethTransactionInvoke. If we type ethTransactionInvoke fortune and then tab-complete:
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionInvoke fortune
addFortune countFortunes drawFortune fortunes
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionInvoke fortune
There is one more method available to ethTransactionInvoke that was not available to ethTransactionDeploy, addFortune. Unlike all of the methods we looked at previously, addFortune wouldn’t only show us information about fortunes already on the blockchain, but would add new information.
Let’s try it. First, let’s see what arguments the method requires:
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionInvoke fortune addFortune
<fortune, of type string>
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionInvoke fortune addFortune
The method wants a thing called “fortune” whose type is “string”. Let’s try giving it a string. Strings should be set in double quotes.
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionInvoke fortune addFortune "Make up a better fortune than this, please."
Maybe the method takes more than one argument? Let’s see, by typing <space><tab> after our quoted string.
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionInvoke fortune addFortune "Make up a better fortune than this, please."
{invalid input}
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionInvoke fortune addFortune "Make up a better fortune than this, please."
Again, {invalid input} in response to a <tab> means there is nothing more that can be completed. So our one argument is enough. Let’s hit <return>:
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionInvoke fortune addFortune "Make up a better fortune than this, please."
[info] Unlocking address '0x1144f4f7aad0c463c667e0f8d73fc13f1e7e86a2' (on chain with ID 1, aliases ['default-sender'])
Enter passphrase or hex private key for address '0x1144f4f7aad0c463c667e0f8d73fc13f1e7e86a2':
To “invoke” a transaction, rather than just to “view” one, requires that we unlock our Ethereum address. Transactions can alter the state of smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain, but cost Ether, a valuable cryptocurrency, in order to execute. We’ll often refer to ether as “ETH”.
Let’s go ahead and unlock our address, and see what happens.
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionInvoke fortune addFortune "Make up a better fortune than this, please."
[info] Unlocking address '0x1144f4f7aad0c463c667e0f8d73fc13f1e7e86a2' (on chain with ID 1, aliases ['default-sender'])
Enter passphrase or hex private key for address '0x1144f4f7aad0c463c667e0f8d73fc13f1e7e86a2': ***************
[info] V3 wallet(s) found for '0x1144f4f7aad0c463c667e0f8d73fc13f1e7e86a2' (aliases ['default-sender'])
==> T R A N S A C T I O N R E Q U E S T
==>
==> The transaction would be a message with...
==> To: 0x82ea8ab1e836272322f376a5f71d5a34a71688f1 (with aliases ['fortune'] on chain with ID 1)
==> From: 0x1144f4f7aad0c463c667e0f8d73fc13f1e7e86a2 (with aliases ['default-sender'] on chain with ID 1)
==> Data: 0x4cf373e60000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000020000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000002b4d616b6520757020612062657474657220666f7274756e65207468616e20746869732c20706c656173652e000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
==> Value: 0 Ether
==>
==> According to the ABI currently associated with the 'to' address, this message would amount to the following method call...
==> Function called: addFortune(string)
==> Arg 1 [name=fortune, type=string]: "Make up a better fortune than this, please."
==>
==> The nonce of the transaction would be 0.
==>
==> $$$ The transaction you have requested could use up to 112773 units of gas.
==> $$$ You would pay 3 gwei for each unit of gas, for a maximum cost of 0.000338319 ether.
==> $$$ This is worth 0.03148396614 USD (according to Coinbase at 1:01 PM).
Would you like to submit this transaction? [y/n]
At the time I am trying this, the transaction I’ve proposed to invoke would cost up to about 3.1¢.
It may cost more than that when you try to execute it! The price of using the Ethereum network varies over time.
Always check the potential cost of a transaction before agreeing to execute it.
Invoking, rather than merely viewing, a transaction costs real money.
Be sure that you are okay with what you might be spending.
I’m okay with spending 3.1¢, so I’ll go ahead and say y.
sbt:eth-command-line> ethTransactionInvoke fortune addFortune "Make up a better fortune than this, please."
[info] Unlocking address '0x1144f4f7aad0c463c667e0f8d73fc13f1e7e86a2' (on chain with ID 1, aliases ['default-sender'])
Enter passphrase or hex private key for address '0x1144f4f7aad0c463c667e0f8d73fc13f1e7e86a2': ***************
[info] V3 wallet(s) found for '0x1144f4f7aad0c463c667e0f8d73fc13f1e7e86a2' (aliases ['default-sender'])
==> T R A N S A C T I O N R E Q U E S T
==>
==> The transaction would be a message with...
==> To: 0x82ea8ab1e836272322f376a5f71d5a34a71688f1 (with aliases ['fortune'] on chain with ID 1)
==> From: 0x1144f4f7aad0c463c667e0f8d73fc13f1e7e86a2 (with aliases ['default-sender'] on chain with ID 1)
==> Data: 0x4cf373e60000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000020000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000002b4d616b6520757020612062657474657220666f7274756e65207468616e20746869732c20706c656173652e000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
==> Value: 0 Ether
==>
==> According to the ABI currently associated with the 'to' address, this message would amount to the following method call...
==> Function called: addFortune(string)
==> Arg 1 [name=fortune, type=string]: "Make up a better fortune than this, please."
==>
==> The nonce of the transaction would be 0.
==>
==> $$$ The transaction you have requested could use up to 112773 units of gas.
==> $$$ You would pay 3 gwei for each unit of gas, for a maximum cost of 0.000338319 ether.
==> $$$ This is worth 0.03148396614 USD (according to Coinbase at 1:01 PM).
Would you like to submit this transaction? [y/n] y
A transaction with hash '0xa7d785cec2da4b415958e80bb9bbe131a4c39622da4ef064ae1e58fd4338285f' will be submitted. Please wait.
[error] com.mchange.sc.v2.jsonrpc.package$JsonrpcException: insufficient funds for gas * price + value [code=-32000]: No further information
[error] at com.mchange.sc.v2.jsonrpc.Response$Error.vomit(Response.scala:12)
[error] at com.mchange.sc.v1.consuela.ethereum.jsonrpc.Client$Implementation$Exchanger.$anonfun$responseHandler$1(Client.scala:282)
[error] at scala.util.Success.$anonfun$map$1(Try.scala:251)
[error] at scala.util.Success.map(Try.scala:209)
[error] at scala.concurrent.Future.$anonfun$map$1(Future.scala:288)
[error] at scala.concurrent.impl.Promise.liftedTree1$1(Promise.scala:29)
[error] at scala.concurrent.impl.Promise.$anonfun$transform$1(Promise.scala:29)
[error] at scala.concurrent.impl.CallbackRunnable.run(Promise.scala:60)
[error] at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinTask$RunnableExecuteAction.exec(ForkJoinTask.java:1402)
[error] at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinTask.doExec(ForkJoinTask.java:289)
[error] at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool$WorkQueue.runTask(ForkJoinPool.java:1056)
[error] at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool.runWorker(ForkJoinPool.java:1692)
[error] at java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinWorkerThread.run(ForkJoinWorkerThread.java:157)
[error] (Compile / ethTransactionInvoke) com.mchange.sc.v2.jsonrpc.package$JsonrpcException: insufficient funds for gas * price + value [code=-32000]: No further information
[error] Total time: 15 s, completed Dec 18, 2018 1:01:20 PM
An ugly-looking error has occurred. The key piece of information in that mess is insufficient funds for gas * price + value.
Our transaction might only have required a few cents worth of ETH to execute, but we don’t have a few cents of ETH in our account!
To see that, let’s try the command ethAddressBalance:
sbt:eth-command-line> ethAddressBalance default-sender
0 ether (as of the latest incorporated block, address 0x1144f4f7aad0c463c667e0f8d73fc13f1e7e86a2)
This corresponds to approximately 0.00 USD (at a rate of 84.74 USD per ETH, retrieved at 1:36 AM from Coinbase)
[success] Total time: 1 s, completed Dec 18, 2018 1:39:56 AM
We have no ETH in our account, so we cannot invoke a transaction that changes data on the blockchain.
We can always “view” a transaction for free, which means executing functions that read data from our smart contract but that don’t make changes.
The methods available via ethTransactionView are accessible to us for free, but will make no changes. It is only when we use ethTransactionInvoke or other tasks that would change the Ethereum blockchain that we have to pay.
We’ll have to get some ETH before we can invoke methods like addFortune that change the state of the blockchain. We’ll turn to that next.