Smart contracts
In this chapter, you will learn the basics of Tezos smart contracts. Their components and the workflow to deploy and use them on the Tezos blockchain.
General definition of a Tezos smart contract
A smart contract is a piece of code stored on the blockchain. It contains a set of instructions and rules to trigger them (see the promises from the "Blockchain Basics" module).
Once deployed (stored), it becomes immutable. A Tezos smart contract is deployed using an operation (note here the Tezos' vocabulary, we don't talk about a "transaction" for a deployment like before). This operation still requires payment of fees.
So, because we embed the instructions and the rules inside the smart contract, they are immutable too. Though for smart contracts, the key difference with a transfer of coins is a user can trigger the execution of the code without modifying it. Therefore, without moving it to another operation or block like coins. It stays where it was stored forever.
Tezos doesn't use an UTXO model (no "vaults", see Blockchain Basics) but a stateful accounts one [1].
Like in Ethereum, Tezos uses 2 types of accounts:
- Classic accounts with a primary address, to store tez (ꜩ)
- Smart contract accounts with an address, storing code and tez (ꜩ)
In Tezos vocabulary, "contracts" refers to both types in general. Actually, each contract has a "manager". Precisely, a classic account has an "owner". If a contract has the "spendable" property, the manager is the entity allowed to spend funds from it.
Smart contracts can achieve different kinds of operations with coins and other smart contracts. They're comparable to automatic sealed food and drink dispensers from the same company:
- Each machine has a contract saying "Give me cryptocurrency, then I give you food or drink" (promises)
- Each machine can have a different smart contract for various foods or drinks (see that as asset types)
- There could be another smart contract gathering the cryptocurrency total for the company (from previous smart contracts)
Each machine doesn't operate until enough currency is delivered (Gas). Note that the quantities of foods or drinks changes while their types can't (ever).
Of course, smart contracts like the Tezos ones go beyond this metaphor. Thanks to transparency and immutability, they allow an agreement to be secured between two or more parties. In this context, the concept of "Code is Law" from Lawrence Lessig is very appropriate.
For example, it is common to create financial instruments like various tokens (usually worth a fraction of the blockchain's coin) with different usability and characteristics inside a multiple smart contracts system. Other more or less complex projects can propose lending, stablecoins, or crowdfundings.
In most cases, smart contracts remove intermediates and drastically reduce costs compared to classic paper contracts and their validations.
Notice that like any other, a Tezos smart contract can only run and interact with the blockchain it's stored on (Bitcoin's smart contracts are exceptions here). It can't interact with the outside world. That's where decentralized applications or "Dapps" come in because they provide interfaces for the outside world.
To build your own Dapp, please refer to the Build a Dapp module.
Lifecycle of a Tezos smart contract
As we saw, a smart contract can only be deployed once but can be called many times. The Tezos smart contract lifecycle steps are two:
- Deployment
- Interactions through calls
Deployment of a Tezos smart contract
The deployment of a Tezos smart contract is named "origination".
When a smart contract is deployed, an address and a corresponding persistent space called "storage" are allocated to this smart contract. The smart contract address is like its identity and where it lives on the ledger. Its storage is its usable space.
Once deployed, anyone or anything can call the smart contract (e.g. other contracts) with an operation (in Tezos vocabulary, transactions are a sub-type of operations; see more about them in the Operations chapter) sent to its address with arguments. This call triggers the execution of the set of predefined instructions (promises).
The origination of a Tezos smart contract must define:
- A complex Parameter Type in the low-level Michelson language
List or tuple of each parameter type (see more below with high-level languages) - Storage Type
- Set of instructions in the low-level Michelson language
The CLI command "octez-client originate" can be used to deploy a Tezos smart contract. Arguments are the following:
- Name of the smart contract
- Michelson script containing:
- Parameter Type
- Storage Type
- Set of instructions
- Initial storage value
- Amount of tez sent to the smart contract
- An optional address of a delegate
The command returns the newly deployed contract's address (more detail in the "CLI and RPC" chapter).
Code of a Tezos smart contract
The code of a smart contract is composed of Michelson instructions. Calls to the smart contract execute these instructions.
The execution of instructions results in a new storage "state". The instructions define how to produce this new state. The instructions may also lead to other operations, including originations of other smart contracts, and of course, transactions.
You can find the full description of the Michelson language in the Michelson module.
Storage of a Tezos smart contract
During the origination, the process must specify the storage initial state (and type).
For more details, check out the "Fees and Rewards" chapter.
Call of a Tezos smart contract
A smart contract can be called by a classic account whose address starts with "tz" (more details in the "Operations" chapter) or by a smart contract's account whose address begins with "KT1". The operation or transaction specifies arguments, that are ordered types. In the example below, we increase or decrease a value in the storage:
One can use the Command Line Interface (CLI) provided by Tezos to interact with a node and make calls. The "octez-client" application allows anyone to deploy and call Tezos smart contracts.
It is also possible to send requests to a node through RPC (Remote Procedure Call) via HTTP (more details in "CLI and RPC" chapter).
High-level languages for Tezos smart contracts implementations
Michelson is a low-level stack-based language. Therefore its adoption is quite limited because most developers won't take time to learn it. Several Michelson compilers have been developed to avoid this friction and led to several high-level languages closer to developers habits. For example: SmartPy (inspired by Python); LIGO (inspired by Camel with a JS-like syntax); or Morley (framework).
Depending on the high-level language used, a smart contract deployment also defines its entrypoints using the complex Parameter Type. These are special functions used to dispatch invocations of the smart contract. Each entrypoint is in charge of triggering an instruction. Below is the same example as before, abstracting the complex Parameter Type:
Each type and position of a parameter in the list (or tupple) allows you to define an entrypoint (a function). For instance, in our example, there are two parameters, hence two types. Both types are integers (to increase or decrease a value). Because the type is the same, its position (left, right, or index number) determines which entrypoint is correct.
It could be:
- Left type: "Increment" entrypoint
- Right type: "Decrement" entrypoint
Below is another illustration of this process:
Smart contracts versioning
You need to remember the code of a smart contract is immutable. Only the storage state changes. Hence, to handle smart contracts versioning (handle new developments and versions of the smart contracts), you should think about implementations structures to allow transfer of information from old contracts to new contracts. If you don't, you risk increasing errors and costs during the transfer.
Hopefully, the above high-level languages make this kind of complex implementation easier. We will present to you two patterns to build evolutive smart contracts or Dapps.
Lambda pattern
The Lambda pattern is based on lambda functions. These anonymous functions only have a mandatory type (function!); non-mandatory parameters; and non-mandatory return values. The idea is to exchange the body of a classic function with a lambda function. While the classic function is immutable, the lambda function is stored in the storage, therefore mutable.
Instead of simply sealing the classic function's body as an immutable structure, you make it a mutable data of the storage.
In an imaginary high-level language syntax:
- An entrypoint
Entrypoint_for_doSomething(p1, ... , pP) {
doSomething(p1, ... , pP);
}
- The corresponding immutable function
function doSomething(p1, ... , pP) return (v1, ... , vR) {
storage.lambdaFunction();
}
- The lambda function in the storage as a variable
lambdaFunction = function (p1, ... , pP) return (v1, ... , vR) {
actual_instructions;
};
Warnings:
In this algorithmic example, almost all types are implicit, which limits the number of words. Furthermore, the syntax isn't as functional as in languages used for Tezos smart contracts (e.g. LIGO).
Data-Proxy pattern
The idea of the "Data-Proxy" pattern is pretty simple: separate the logic from the data into different smart contracts. Instead of duplicating and transferring the data into a new smart contract, we only update the logic smart contract.
The first smart contract is the Data smart contract. It stores important data, including the address and entrypoints of the Logic smart contract. It also plays a proxy role as any request always goes through it first. It usually doesn't have a lot of functions. The mandatory functions set and retrieve its storage data (including new addresses for the new logic smart contracts).
When you need to update the logic (e.g. new features; corrections...) you only deploy a new logic smart contract and update the Data smart contract storage with the new address. See below fig. 6 for an update of the Logic smart contract from version 1.0 to 2.1.:
Once the Data-Proxy architecture is in place, we can make the Data smart contract more dynamic with a Map structure and the Logic smart contract upgradable with a Lambda pattern.
Map structure
The idea is to make the Data smart contract storage more dynamic. We organize data with a "data mapping". This mapping or "map" makes a classic "Key / Value" association between two data types. What's interesting here is that it's evolutive, even in the storage. Of course, the data types are fixed, but it is possible to add or remove pairs or change a value associated with the same key.
For example, in our Data smart contract, we can define a Map with versions' numbers as keys and logic smart contracts addresses as values:
Note that even if a value or pair is deleted from a map, the blockchain ledger keeps the complete history of its state.
In the versions' example, you can still see all versions' history (and addresses) using a block explorer.
The idea we described in this Data-Proxy pattern is actually a basic form of modular programming.
This pattern isn't limited to 2 smart contracts only. You can imagine various architectures combining various patterns. For instance, you can imagine a central Data smart contract and multiple upgradable smart contracts revolving around it. This example implies a single point of failure in the Data smart contract, but there are other questions you should keep in mind, like access rights (to get and set data, to upgrade logic, etc.).
These patterns aren't magical and just allow more flexibility. You still need to think about the best architecture for your dapp. Patterns can still notably increase the deployment and gaz using fees.
What have we learned so far?
In this chapter, we described the Tezos smart contract's main components and properties. We also described its lifecycle. We explained how to construct Tezos smart contracts using different patterns to make evolving dapps and handle efficient versioning.
In the next chapter, we will detail the Tezos consensus mechanism "Liquid Proof-of-Stake".
References
[1] https://medium.com/nervosnetwork/my-comparison-between-the-utxo-and-account-model-821eb46691b2