Updated on March 5, 2020
Creating and sending transactions
You can send signed transactions using Hyperledger Besu the
eth_sendRawTransaction JSON-RPC API
method.
Signed transactions can be simple value transfers, contract creation, or contract invocation.
Example scripts show how to create a signed raw transaction to
pass to eth_sendRawTransaction to send
Ether and create a smart contract.
Private keys
Do not use the accounts in the examples on mainnet or any public network except for testing. The private keys are displayed which means the accounts are not secure.
All accounts and private keys in the examples are from the dev.json genesis file in the
/besu/ethereum/core/src/main/resources
directory.
In production environments avoid exposing your private keys by creating signed transactions
offline, or use EthSigner to isolate your private keys
and sign transactions with
eth_sendTransaction.
Tip
Libraries such as web3j or ethereumj and tools such as MyCrypto can also create signed transactions.
eth_call vs eth_sendRawTransaction
You can interact with contracts using eth_call or
eth_sendRawTransaction. The table below
compares the characteristics of both calls.
| eth_call | eth_sendRawTransaction |
|---|---|
| Read-only | Write |
| Invokes contract function locally | Broadcasts to the network |
| Does not change state of blockchain | Updates the blockchain (for example, transfers ether between accounts) |
| Does not consume gas | Requires gas |
| Synchronous | Asynchronous |
| Returns the value of a contract function available immediately | Returns transaction hash only. A block might not include all possile transactions (for example, if the gas price is too low). |