CashScript

CashScript is a high-level programming language for smart contracts on Bitcoin Cash. It offers a strong abstraction layer over Bitcoin Cash' native virtual machine, Bitcoin Script. Its syntax is based on Ethereum's smart contract language Solidity, but its functionality is very different since smart contracts on Bitcoin Cash differ greatly from smart contracts on Ethereum. For a detailed comparison of them, refer to the blog post Smart Contracts on Ethereum, Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.

This repository contains the code for the CashScript compiler & command line tool under packages/cashc/. This repository also contains the code for the CashScript JavaScript SDK under packages/cashscript/. The source code of the CashScript.org website is included under website/. Visit the website for a detailed Documentation on the CashScript language and SDK.

The CashScript Language

CashScript is a high-level language that allows you to write Bitcoin Cash smart contracts in a straightforward and familiar way. Its syntax is inspired by Ethereum's Solidity language, but its functionality is different since the underlying systems have very different fundamentals. See the language documentation for a full reference of the language.

The CashScript Compiler

CashScript features a compiler as a standalone command line tool, called cashc. It can be installed through npm and used to compile .cash files into .json artifact files. These artifact files can be imported into the CashScript JavaScript SDK (or other SDKs in the future). The cashc NPM package can also be imported inside JavaScript files to compile .cash files without using the command line tool.

Installation

npm install -g cashc

Usage

Usage: cashc [options] [source_file]

Options:
  -V, --version        Output the version number.
  -o, --output <path>  Specify a file to output the generated artifact.
  -h, --hex            Compile the contract to hex format rather than a full artifact.
  -A, --asm            Compile the contract to ASM format rather than a full artifact.
  -c, --opcount        Display the number of opcodes in the compiled bytecode.
  -s, --size           Display the size in bytes of the compiled bytecode.
  -?, --help           Display help

The CashScript SDK

The main way to interact with CashScript contracts and integrate them into applications is using the CashScript SDK. This SDK allows you to import .json artifact files that were compiled using the cashc compiler and convert them to Contract objects. These objects are used to create new contract instances. These instances are used to interact with the contracts using the functions that were implemented in the .cash file. For more information on the CashScript SDK, refer to the SDK documentation.

Installation

npm install cashscript

Usage

import { Contract, ... } from 'cashscript';

Using the CashScript SDK, you can import contract artifact files, create new instances of these contracts, and interact with these instances:

...
  // Import the P2PKH artifact
  import P2PKH from './p2pkh-artifact.json' assert { type: 'json' };

  // Instantiate a network provider for CashScript's network operations
  const provider = new ElectrumNetworkProvider('mainnet');

  // Create a new P2PKH contract with constructor arguments: { pkh: pkh }
  const contract = new Contract(P2PKH, [pkh], provider);

  // Get contract balance & output address + balance
  console.log('contract address:', contract.address);
  console.log('contract balance:', await contract.getBalance());

  // Call the spend function with the owner's signature
  // And use it to send 0. 000 100 00 BCH back to the contract's address
  const txDetails = await contract.functions
    .spend(pk, new SignatureTemplate(keypair))
    .to(contract.address, 10000)
    .send();

  console.log(txDetails);
...

Examples

If you want to see CashScript in action and check out its usage, there are several example contracts in the examples/ directory. The .cash files contain example contracts, and the .ts files contain example usage of the CashScript SDK to interact with these contracts.

The "Hello World" of CashScript contracts is defining the P2PKH pattern inside a contract, which can be found under examples/p2pkh.cash. Its usage can be found under examples/p2pkh.ts.

Running the examples

To run the examples, clone this repository and navigate to the examples/ directory. Since the examples depend on the SDK, be sure to run npm install or yarn inside the examples/ directory, which installs all required packages.

git clone git@github.com:Bitcoin-com/cashscript.git
cd cashscript/examples
npm install

All .ts files in the examples/ directory can then be executed with ts-node-esm.

npm install -g ts-node
ts-node-esm p2pkh.ts

All .js files can be executed with node.

node p2pkh.js