Contract¶

Smart Contract Introduction¶

Smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that automatically implements its terms. Smart contract is the same as common contract, they all define the terms and rules related to the participants. Once the contract is started, it can runs in the way it is designed.

TRON smart contract support Solidity language in (Ethereum). You can find the latest solidity version in the Tron solidity repository. Write a smart contract, then build the smart contract and deploy it to TRON network. When the smart contract is triggered, the corresponding function will be executed automatically.

Smart Contract Features¶

TRON virtual machine is based on Ethereum solidity language, it also has TRON's own features.

1. Smart Contract¶

TRON VM is compatible with Ethereum's smart contract, using protobuf to define the content of the contract:

message SmartContract {
  message ABI {
    message Entry {
      enum EntryType {
        UnknownEntryType = 0;
        Constructor = 1;
        Function = 2;
        Event = 3;
        Fallback = 4;
        Receive = 5;
        Error = 6;
      }
      message Param {
        bool indexed = 1;
        string name = 2;
        string type = 3;
      }
      enum StateMutabilityType {
        UnknownMutabilityType = 0;
        Pure = 1;
        View = 2;
        Nonpayable = 3;
        Payable = 4;
      }

      bool anonymous = 1;
      bool constant = 2;
      string name = 3;
      repeated Param inputs = 4;
      repeated Param outputs = 5;
      EntryType type = 6;
      bool payable = 7;
      StateMutabilityType stateMutability = 8;
    }
    repeated Entry entrys = 1;
  }
  bytes origin_address = 1;
  bytes contract_address = 2;
  ABI abi = 3;
  bytes bytecode = 4;
  int64 call_value = 5;
  int64 consume_user_resource_percent = 6;
  string name = 7;
  int64 origin_energy_limit = 8;
  bytes code_hash = 9;
  bytes trx_hash = 10;
}

Through other two grpc message types CreateSmartContract and TriggerSmartContract to create and use smart contract.

2. The Usage of the Function of Smart Contract¶

• constant function and inconstant function

There are two types of function according to whether any change will be made to the properties on the chain: constant function and inconstant function Constant function uses view/pure/constant to decorate, will return the result on the node it is called and not be broadcasted in the form of a transaction Inconstant function will be broadcasted in the form of a transaction while be called, the function will change the data on the chain, such as transfer, changing the value of the internal variables of contracts, etc.

Note: If you use create command inside a contract (CREATE instruction), even use view/pure/constant to decorate the dynamically created contract function, this function will still be treated as inconstant function, be dealt in the form of transaction.

• message calls

Message calls can call the functions of other contracts, also can transfer TRX to the accounts of contract and none-contract. Like the common TRON triggercontract, Message calls have initiator, recipient, data, transfer amount, fees and return attributes. Every message call can generate a new one recursively. Contract can define the distribution of the remaining energy in the internal message call. If it comes with OutOfEnergyException in the internal message call, it will return false, but not error. In the meanwhile, only the gas sent with the internal message call will be consumed, if energy is not specified in call.value(energy), all the remaining energy will be used.

• delegate call/call code/library

There is a special type of message call, delegate call. The difference with common message call is the code of the target address will be run in the context of the contract that initiates the call, msg.sender and msg.value remain unchanged. This means a contract can dynamically loadcode from another address while running. Storage, current address and balance all point to the contract that initiates the call, only the code is get from the address being called. This gives Solidity the ability to achieve the 'lib' function: the reusable code lib can be put in the storage of a contract to implement complex data structure library.

• CREATE command

This command will create a new contract with a new address. The only difference with Ethereum is the newly generated TRON address used the smart contract creation transaction id and the hash of nonce called combined. Different from Ethereum, the definition of nonce is the contract sequence number of the creation of the root call. Even there are many CREATE commands calls, contract number in sequence from 1. Refer to the source code for more detail. Note: Different from creating a contract by grpc's deploycontract, contract created by CREATE command does not store contract abi.

• built-in function and built-in function attribute (Since Odyssey-v3.1.1, TVM built-in function is not supported temporarily)

1)TVM is compatible with solidity language's transfer format, including:
- accompany with constructor to call transfer
- accompany with internal function to call transfer
- use transfer/send/call/callcode/delegatecall to call transfer

Note: TRON's smart contract is different from TRON's system contract, if the transfer to address does not exist it can not create an account by smart contract transfer.

2)Different accounts vote for SuperNode (Since Odyssey-v3.1.1, TVM built-in function is not supported temporarily)

3)SuperNode gets all the reward (Since Odyssey-v3.1.1, TVM built-in function is not supported temporarily)

4)SuperNode approves or disapproves the proposal (Since Odyssey-v3.1.1, TVM built-in function is not supported temporarily)

5)SuperNode proposes a proposal (Since Odyssey-v3.1.1, TVM built-in function is not supported temporarily)

6)SuperNode deletes  a proposal (Since Odyssey-v3.1.1, TVM built-in function is not supported temporarily)

7)TRON byte address converts to solidity address (Since Odyssey-v3.1.1, TVM built-in function is not supported temporarily)

8)TRON string address converts to solidity address (Since Odyssey-v3.1.1, TVM built-in function is not supported temporarily)

9)Send token to target address (Since Odyssey-v3.1.1, TVM built-in function is not supported temporarily)

10)Query token amount of target address (Since Odyssey-v3.1.1, TVM built-in function is not supported temporarily)

11)Compatible with all the built-in functions of Ethereum

3. Contract Address Using in Solidity Language¶

Ethereum VM address is 20 bytes, but TRON's VM address is 21 bytes.

• address conversion

Need to convert TRON's address while using in solidity (recommended):

/**
     *  @dev    convert uint256 (HexString add 0x at beginning) tron address to solidity address type
     *  @param  tronAddress uint256 tronAddress, begin with 0x, followed by HexString
     *  @return Solidity address type
*/

function convertFromTronInt(uint256 tronAddress) public view returns(address){
        return address(tronAddress);
}

• address judgement

Solidity has address constant judgement, if using 21 bytes address the compiler will throw out an error, so you should use 20 bytes address, like:

function compareAddress(address tronAddress) public view returns (uint256){
        // if (tronAddress == 0x41ca35b7d915458ef540ade6068dfe2f44e8fa733c) { // compile error
        if (tronAddress == 0xca35b7d915458ef540ade6068dfe2f44e8fa733c) { // right
            return 1;
        } else {
            return 0;
        }
}

• variable assignment

Solidity has address constant assignment, if using 21 bytes address the compiler will throw out an error, so you should use 20 bytes address, like:

function assignAddress() public view {
        // address newAddress = 0x41ca35b7d915458ef540ade6068dfe2f44e8fa733c; // compile error
        address newAddress = 0xca35b7d915458ef540ade6068dfe2f44e8fa733c;
        // do something
}

4. The Special Constants Differ from Ethereum¶

Currency

Like solidity supports ETH, TRON VM supports trx and sun, 1 trx = 1000000 sun, case sensitive, only support lower case. tron-studio supports trx and sun, remix does not support trx and sun. We recommend to use tron-studio instead of remix to build TRON smart contract.

Block

• block.blockhash (uint blockNumber) returns (bytes32): specified block hash, can only apply to the latest 256 blocks and current block excluded
• block.coinbase (address): SuperNode address that produced the current block
• block.difficulty (uint): current block difficulty, not recommended, set 0
• block.gaslimit (uint): current block gas limit, not supported, set 0
• block.number (uint): current block number
• block.timestamp (uint): current block timestamp
• gasleft() returns (uint256): remaining gas
• msg.data (bytes): complete call data
• msg.gas (uint): remaining gas - since 0.4.21, not recommended, replaced by gesleft()
• msg.sender (address): message sender (current call)
• msg.sig (bytes4): first 4 bytes of call data (function identifier)
• msg.value (uint): the amount of SUN send with message
• now (uint): current block timestamp (block.timestamp)
• tx.gasprice (uint): the gas price of transaction, not recommended, set 0
• tx.origin (address): transaction initiator

Each command of smart contract consume system resource while running, we use 'Energy' as the unit of the consumption of the resource.