Smart contracts

This tutorial demonstrates how to build a basic smart contract to run on a Substrate-based chain.

In this tutorial, you'll explore using ink! as a programming language for writing Rust-based smart contracts.

Install the CLI tool

We will first update our Rust environment -

1. rustup component add rust-src
2. Then verify whether we have the WebAssembly target installed - 

rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown --toolchain nightly

Now let’s go ahead and install the CLI tool -

• Add rust-src compiler component -

rustup component add rust-src

• Install the latest version of cargo-contract - 

cargo install --force --locked cargo-contract --version 2.0.0-rc

• Verify the installation and explore the commands available - 

cargo contract --help

Create a new smart contract project

Here we are assuming that you already have a precompiled substrate node install

To generate files for an ink! Project - 

1. Create a new project folder named “flipper” - cargo contract new flipper
2. You will see a project generated with the default contract lib.rs
3. Now we can test this smart contract with - Cargo Test
4. Now we will build it - Cargo build

Deploy contract

Now that we have compiled the contract, we just need to start the node and deploy it

• Start your node using 

substrate-contracts-node --log info,runtime::contracts=debug 2>&1

• Go to the flipper project folder.
• Build the contract using cargo contract build.

cargo contract instantiate --constructor new --args "false" --suri //Alice --salt $(date +%s)

Interact with contract

Since the smart contract has been deployed, let’s interact with it - 

• We will first use get()

cargo contract call --contract $INSTANTIATED_CONTRACT_ADDRESS --message get --suri //Alice --dry-run

• Then we will use flip()

cargo contract call --contract $INSTANTIATED_CONTRACT_ADDRESS --message flip --suri //Alice