Metamask: Solidity smart contract behaves strangely on Goerli Testnet

Metamask: Solidity Smart Contract Behavior on Goerli Testnet

As a new developer in the crypto space, you’re likely eager to test your metaverse projects before deploying them to mainnet. One way to do this is by utilizing the popular Metamask wallet, which allows users to store and manage their Ethereum accounts on various networks, including the Goerli Testnet. However, when it comes to building a smart contract that interacts with the user’s account, things can get interesting.

Background

Metamask is a browser extension that enables users to create, store, and manage multiple Ethereum accounts on different networks, including Goerli Testnet. The wallet supports various Ethereum versions (e.g., 1.x, 2.x, 3.x) and allows for the creation of complex smart contracts using Solidity, the official programming language for Ethereum.

Testnet Setup

To test your Metamask-enabled smart contract on Goerli Testnet, you’ll need to follow these steps:

• Download and install the latest version of Truffle, which is a popular framework for building and deploying Ethereum smart contracts.

• Create a new Truffle project using Truffle CLI:

truffle init

• Install the Metamask extension for Webpack (or ESM) in your Truffle project:

npm install metamask-webpack

• Configure Metamask to use Goerli Testnet:

import { MetamaskProvider } from '@metamask/webpack';


const metamaskProvider = new MetamaskProvider({

  url: '

  networkId: 1,

});

Building the Smart Contract

Now that you have your Truffle project set up and Metamask configured, let’s build a simple smart contract that interacts with a user’s account.

Create a new file called Contract.ts and add the following code:

import { ethers } from 'ethers';


interface UserAccount {

  balance: ethers.BigInt;

}


contract = new ethers.Contract('0x...your Contract ABI...', '0x...your Contract Source Map...', metamaskProvider);

Replace '0x...your Contract ABI...' and '0x...your Contract Source Map...' with the actual ABI (Application Binary Interface) and source map of your contract.

Testing the Smart Contract

To test the smart contract, you can use Truffle’s built-in test function:

contract.test({

  accounts: ['account1', 'account2'],

  // Call your contract function

  call: 'function balance() public returns (BigInt) { return balance(); }',

});

Replace 'function balance() public returns (BigInt) { return balance(); }' with the actual name of your contract function.

Behavior Issue

However, when you run the smart contract test, you might encounter an issue. The balance() function calls are not being executed correctly on Goerli Testnet.

The problem lies in how Metamask interacts with the Ethereum network. When a user stores their account on Metamask and then tries to interact with the account using Truffle’s test function, Metamask is unable to update the account balance due to the way it handles transactions and state updates.

Solution

To resolve this issue, you can use one of two approaches:

• Use a different contract: Create a new smart contract that does not rely on the balance() function or any other user-provided data.

• Implement your own account balance management: If you need to store and manage account balances, you can create a custom wallet module that handles account state updates using Web3.js.

For this example, we’ll use the second approach. Create a new file called AccountManager.ts and add the following code:

“`typescript

import { Account } from ‘@metamask/webpack’;

import { ethers } from ‘ethers’;

class AccountManager {

private accounts: Account[];

constructor() {

this.accounts = [];

}

addAccount(account: Account) {

this.