<html><head><title>Documentation</title><linkrel="stylesheet"type="text/css"href="/static/style.css"></head><body><divclass="sidebar"><divclass="header"><divclass="logo"><ahref="/"><divclass="image"></div><divclass="name">ethers</div><divclass="version">v5.0-beta</div></a></div></div><divclass="toc"><div><divclass="link title"><ahref="/">Documentation</a></div><divclass="base child show link depth-1"><ahref="/getting-started/">Getting Started</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-2"><ahref="/getting-started/#installing">Installing</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-2"><ahref="/getting-started/#importing">Importing</a></div><divclass="base child show link depth-1"><ahref="/concepts/">Concepts</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-2"><ahref="/concepts/events/">Events</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-3"><ahref="/concepts/events/#solidity-topics">Solidity Topics</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-2"><ahref="/concepts/gas/">Gas</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-3"><ahref="/concepts/gas/#gas-price">Gas Price</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-3"><ahref="/concepts/gas/#gas-limit">Gas Limit</a></div><divclass="base child show link depth-1"><ahref="/api/">Application Programming Interface</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-2"><ahref="/api/contract/">Contracts</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-3"><ahref="/api/contract/#buckets">Buckets</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-2"><ahref="/api/signer/">Signers</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-3"><ahref="/api/signer/#signer">Signer</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-3"><ahref="/api/signer/#wallet">Wallet</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-3"><ahref="/api/signer/#voidsigner">VoidSigner</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-3"><ahref="/api/signer/#externallyownedaccount">ExternallyOwnedAccount</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-2"><ahref="/api/providers/">Providers</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-3"><ahref="/api/providers/provider/">Provider</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-4"><ahref="/api/providers/provider/#accounts-methods">Accounts Methods</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-4"><ahref="/api/providers/provider/#blocks-methods">Blocks Methods</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-4"><ahref="/api/providers/provider/#ethereum-naming-service-(ens)-methods">Ethereum Naming Service (ENS) Methods</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-4"><ahref="/api/providers/provider/#logs-methods">Logs Methods</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-4"><ahref="/api/providers/provider/#network-status-methods">Network Status Methods</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-4"><ahref="/api/providers/provider/#transactions-methods">Transactions Methods</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-4"><ahref="/api/providers/provider/#event-emitter-methods">Event Emitter Methods</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-4"><ahref="/api/providers/provider/#inspection-methods">Inspection Methods</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-3"><ahref="/api/providers/jsonrpc-provider/">JsonRpcProvider</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-4"><ahref="/api/providers/jsonrpc-provider/#jsonrpcsigner">JsonRpcSigner</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-4"><ahref="/api/providers/jsonrpc-provider/#jsonrpcuncheckedsigner">JsonRpcUncheckedSigner</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-3"><ahref="/api/providers/api-providers/">API Providers</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-4"><ahref="/api/providers/api-providers/#etherscanprovider">EtherscanProvider</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-4"><ahref="/api/providers/api-providers/#infuraprovider">InfuraProvider</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-4"><ahref="/api/providers/api-providers/#alchemyprovider">AlchemyProvider</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-4"><ahref="/api/providers/api-providers/#cloudfrontprovider">CloudfrontProvider</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-3"><ahref="/api/providers/other/">Other Providers</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-4"><ahref="/api/providers/other/#fallbackprovider">FallbackProvider</a></div><divclass="hide link depth-4"><ahref="/api/providers/other/#ipcprovider">IpcProvider</a></div>
<aname="what-is-ethers?"></a><h1class="show-anchors"><div>What is ethers?<divclass="anchors"><aclass="self"href="#what-is-ethers?"></a></div></div></h1>
<p>The ethers.js library aims to be a complete and compact library for interacting with the Ethereum Blockchain and its ecosystem. It was originally designed for use with <ahref="https://ethers.io/">ethers.io</a> and has since expanded into a much more general-purpose library.</p>
<ul><li>Keep your private keys in your client, <b>safe</b> and sound</li><li>Import and export <b>JSON wallets</b> (Geth, Parity and crowdsale)</li><li>Import and export BIP 39 <b>mnemonic phrases</b> (12 word backup phrases) and HD Wallets (English, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese; more coming soon)</li><li>Meta-classes create JavaScript objects from any contract ABI, including <b>ABIv2</b> and <b>Human-Readable ABI</b></li><li>Connect to Ethereum nodes over <ahref="https:<i>github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/JSON-RPC">JSON-RPC</a>, <ahref="https:</i>infura.io/">INFURA</a>, <ahref="https:<i>etherscan.io/">Etherscan</a>, <ahref="https:</i>nodesmith.io">Nodesmith</a>, <ahref="https:<i>alchemyapi.io">Alchemy</a>, or <ahref="https:</i>metamask.io/">MetaMask</a>.</li><li><b>ENS names</b> are first-class citizens; they can be used anywhere an Ethereum addresses can be used</li><li><b>Tiny</b> (~88kb compressed; 284kb uncompressed)</li><li><b>Complete</b> functionality for all your Ethereum needs</li><li>Extensive <ahref="https://docs.ethers.io/">documentation</a></li><li>Large collection of <b>test cases</b> which are maintained and added to</li><li>Fully <b>TypeScript</b> ready, with definition files and full TypeScript source</li><li><b>MIT License</b> (including <i>ALL</i> dependencies); completely open source to do with as you please</li></ul>
<p>This section will be kept up to date, linking to documentation of older versions of the library.</p><ul><li><ahref="https://docs.ethers.io/ethers.js">version 4.0</a></li><li><ahref="https://docs.ethers.io/ethers.js/v3.0/html/">version 3.0</a></li></ul><divclass="footer"><divclass="nav next"><ahref="/getting-started/">Getting Started<spanclass="arrow">→</span></a></div></div><divclass="copyright">The content of this site is licensed under the <ahref="https://choosealicense.com/licenses/cc-by-4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a>.</div></div><scriptsrc="/script.js"type="text/javascript"></script></body></html><!-- ContentHash:686a4ca5ac072925389369028b9b4ebda6b5df21bef16e685ea5685e2aadf1c6 -->
