What is a meta transaction?
A meta transaction is a type of transaction that allows a user to pay for gas fees or transaction fees on behalf of someone else. Instead of the recipient paying for the transaction fees themselves, the fees are paid by a third party, typically a relayer, on their behalf. Meta transactions are commonly used in decentralized applications (dApps) that run on blockchain networks, such as Ethereum. These dApps often require users to pay for gas fees in order to execute transactions on the blockchain, which can be a barrier to entry for some users. Meta transactions can help reduce this barrier by allowing users to interact with the dApp without holding cryptocurrency or paying gas fees.
Meta transactions are often implemented using smart contracts, which can execute the transaction and reimburse the user who paid for the gas fees. This mechanism can be beneficial for both users and dApp developers, as it can help increase user adoption and reduce the cost of using the dApp. Meta transactions are a powerful feature in smart contracts, as they empower users to not have to worry about fees when submitting a transaction. For example, if a user has some ERC20 tokens in their wallet but no ETH to transfer them, they can sign the transaction to transfer their tokens to another address, and you can submit the transaction and pay the gas fees for them.
Imagine that one of your user have some ERC20 tokens in his wallet however no ETH to transfer them or do anything with them. With meta transaction, the user can sign the transaction to transfer their tokens to another address and you are going to submit the transaction and pay the gas fees for him.
PREREQUISITES
- nodejs with at least version 16
- npm
- ethers.js 5
- a smart contract deployed from a Starton template
Starton Library
You will need to have an already deployed token from the Starton library (it can be ERC20, ERC721 or ERC1155). Smart contract templates from Starton library integrates meta transactions. You do not need to deploy a specific meta transaction template.
Computing the signature of the user of the transaction
The main feature of meta transaction consists of the executeMetaTransaction function.
The function requires arguments we need to compute. First, you need to compute the signature of the user of the transaction.
To do so here is a example of code that will create a signature from a setApprovalForAll(true) call.
import { ethers } from "hardhat"
import axios from "axios"
async function createMetatransaction() {
// Load the configuration necessary to use axios with starton
const apiKey = "" // It isn't recommanded to put his api key directly in his code but for the easiness of the tutorial we are going to put it here
const network = "" // Need to set the network for this
const url = "https://api.staging.starton.com/v3/smart-contract"
const config = {
headers: {
"x-api-key": apiKey,
},
}
// Load the wallet, can be using the private key or using metamask fpr exemple with this code
/*
const provider = new ethers.providers.Web3Provider(window.ethereum, "any");
// Prompt user for account connections
await provider.send("eth_requestAccounts", []);
const wallet = provider.getSigner();
*/
const privateKey = ""
const wallet = new ethers.Wallet(privateKey)
// Load the contract into etherjs using his abi and contractAddress
const contractAddress = ""
const contractABI = []
const instanceERC721 = new ethers.Contract(contractAddress, contractABI, wallet)
// Create the typed transaction
const metaTransactionType = [
{
name: "nonce",
type: "uint256",
},
{
name: "from",
type: "address",
},
{
name: "functionSignature",
type: "bytes",
},
]
// Load everything needed for the transaction using the interact from starton
const name = await axios.post(
`${url}/${network}/${contractAddress}/read`,
{ functionName: "name", params: [] },
config,
)
const version = await axios.post(
`${url}/${network}/${contractAddress}/read`,
{ functionName: "ERC712_VERSION", params: [] },
config,
)
const nonce = await axios.post(
`${url}/${network}/${contractAddress}/read`,
{ functionName: "getNonce", params: [await wallet.getAddress()] },
config,
)
const chainId = await axios.post(
`${url}/${network}/${contractAddress}/read`,
{ functionName: "getChainId", params: [] },
config,
)
// Creates the domain type for the EIP712 transaction that will give more insight on the transaction
const domainType = {
name: name.data.response,
version: version.data.response,
verifyingContract: instanceERC721.address,
salt: "0x" + parseInt(chainId.data.response).toString(16).padStart(64, "0"),
}
// Create the function signature that will be called by the user (here a setApprovalForAll but it can be anything from the contract)
const functionSignature = instanceERC721.interface.encodeFunctionData("setApprovalForAll", [
"0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000",
true,
])
// Sign the transaction with the user wallet
const signature = await wallet._signTypedData(
domainType,
{
MetaTransaction: metaTransactionType,
},
{
nonce: nonce.data.response.toString(),
from: await wallet.getAddress(),
functionSignature,
},
)
// Split the signature acquired just before
const { r, s, v } = ethers.utils.splitSignature(signature)
console.log(r, s, v)
}
;(async () => {
createMetatransaction()
})()
Calling the function executeMetaTransaction
Once it’s done you can execute the meta transaction like this:
// Submit the transaction to the interact
await axios.post(
`https://api.starton.com/v3/smart-contract/${network}/${contractAddress}/call`,
{
functionName: "executeMetaTransaction",
params: [await wallet.getAddress(), functionSignature, r, s, v],
signerWallet: "", // The wallet you wish the transaction to submit
},
config,
)
Now that everything is done, you can connect your front-end where users will sign transactions. They can then be stored in a back-end to be executed in a meta transaction.
