Transfer ERC20 Tokens – Transfer ERC20 Token Using Ropsten Infura with Web3

blockchainerc-20ethereumjssoliditytokens

I created a contract token using the Ethereum.org token solidity code. It has a function called transfer to send tokens between accounts:

function transfer(address _to, uint256 _value)

I need to know how to connect this contract using web3, and then send a certain number of tokens generated to another account. I've been struggling with how to do this for quite some time and hoping this community could help. Here is what I have thus far, using web3 version 0.20.0:

const Web3 = require("web3");
const web3 = new Web3();
web3.setProvider(new 
web3.providers.HttpProvider("https://ropsten.infura.io/XXXXXX"));
var abi = [ {} ] // redacted on purpose
var count = web3.eth.getTransactionCount("0x9...");
var abiArray = abi;
var contractAddress = "0x2...";
var contract =  web3.eth.contract(abiArray).at(contractAddress);

var data = contract.transfer.getData("0x2...", 10000, {from: "0x9..."});
var gasPrice = web3.eth.gasPrice;
var gasLimit = 90000;

var rawTransaction = {
  "from": "0x9...",
  "nonce": web3.toHex(count),
  "gasPrice": web3.toHex(gasPrice),
  "gasLimit": web3.toHex(gasLimit),
  "to": "0x2...",
  "value": "0x1",
  "data": data,
  "chainId": 0x03
};

var privKey = new Buffer('XXXXXXXXXXXXXX', 'hex');
var tx = new Tx(rawTransaction);

tx.sign(privKey);
var serializedTx = tx.serialize();

web3.eth.sendRawTransaction('0x' + serializedTx.toString('hex'), function(err, hash) {
  if (!err)
      console.log(hash);
  else
      console.log(err);
});

This transaction works but it's sending ether as opposed to the actual ERC20 token. I'm really at a loss for why this is the case and would appreciate any help whatsoever.

Code for Token Contract:

contract Token {
    // Public variables of the token
    string public name;
    string public symbol;
    uint8 public decimals = 18;
    // 18 decimals is the strongly suggested default, avoid changing it
    uint256 public totalSupply;

    // This creates an array with all balances
    mapping (address => uint256) public balanceOf;
    mapping (address => mapping (address => uint256)) public allowance;

    // This generates a public event on the blockchain that will notify clients
    event Transfer(address indexed from, address indexed to, uint256 value);

    // This notifies clients about the amount burnt
    event Burn(address indexed from, uint256 value);

    /**
     * Constrctor function
     *
     * Initializes contract with initial supply tokens to the creator of the contract
     */
    function Token(
        uint256 initialSupply,
        string tokenName,
        string tokenSymbol
    ) public {
        totalSupply = initialSupply * 10 ** uint256(decimals);  // Update total supply with the decimal amount
        balanceOf[msg.sender] = totalSupply;                // Give the creator all initial tokens
        name = tokenName;                                   // Set the name for display purposes
        symbol = tokenSymbol;                               // Set the symbol for display purposes
    }

    /**
     * Internal transfer, only can be called by this contract
     */
    function _transfer(address _from, address _to, uint _value) internal {
        // Prevent transfer to 0x0 address. Use burn() instead
        require(_to != 0x0);
        // Check if the sender has enough
        require(balanceOf[_from] >= _value);
        // Check for overflows
        require(balanceOf[_to] + _value > balanceOf[_to]);
        // Save this for an assertion in the future
        uint previousBalances = balanceOf[_from] + balanceOf[_to];
        // Subtract from the sender
        balanceOf[_from] -= _value;
        // Add the same to the recipient
        balanceOf[_to] += _value;
        Transfer(_from, _to, _value);
        // Asserts are used to use static analysis to find bugs in your code. They should never fail
        assert(balanceOf[_from] + balanceOf[_to] == previousBalances);
    }

    /**
     * Transfer tokens
     *
     * Send `_value` tokens to `_to` from your account
     *
     * @param _to The address of the recipient
     * @param _value the amount to send
     */
    function transfer(address _to, uint256 _value) public {
        _transfer(msg.sender, _to, _value);
    }

    /**
     * Transfer tokens from other address
     *
     * Send `_value` tokens to `_to` in behalf of `_from`
     *
     * @param _from The address of the sender
     * @param _to The address of the recipient
     * @param _value the amount to send
     */
    function transferFrom(address _from, address _to, uint256 _value) public returns (bool success) {
        require(_value <= allowance[_from][msg.sender]);     // Check allowance
        allowance[_from][msg.sender] -= _value;
        _transfer(_from, _to, _value);
        return true;
    }

    /**
     * Set allowance for other address
     *
     * Allows `_spender` to spend no more than `_value` tokens in your behalf
     *
     * @param _spender The address authorized to spend
     * @param _value the max amount they can spend
     */
    function approve(address _spender, uint256 _value) public
        returns (bool success) {
        allowance[msg.sender][_spender] = _value;
        return true;
    }

    /**
     * Set allowance for other address and notify
     *
     * Allows `_spender` to spend no more than `_value` tokens in your behalf, and then ping the contract about it
     *
     * @param _spender The address authorized to spend
     * @param _value the max amount they can spend
     * @param _extraData some extra information to send to the approved contract
     */
    function approveAndCall(address _spender, uint256 _value, bytes _extraData)
        public
        returns (bool success) {
        tokenRecipient spender = tokenRecipient(_spender);
        if (approve(_spender, _value)) {
            spender.receiveApproval(msg.sender, _value, this, _extraData);
            return true;
        }
    }

    /**
     * Destroy tokens
     *
     * Remove `_value` tokens from the system irreversibly
     *
     * @param _value the amount of money to burn
     */
    function burn(uint256 _value) public returns (bool success) {
        require(balanceOf[msg.sender] >= _value);   // Check if the sender has enough
        balanceOf[msg.sender] -= _value;            // Subtract from the sender
        totalSupply -= _value;                      // Updates totalSupply
        Burn(msg.sender, _value);
        return true;
    }

    /**
     * Destroy tokens from other ccount
     *
     * Remove `_value` tokens from the system irreversibly on behalf of `_from`.
     *
     * @param _from the address of the sender
     * @param _value the amount of money to burn
     */
    function burnFrom(address _from, uint256 _value) public returns (bool success) {
        require(balanceOf[_from] >= _value);                // Check if the targeted balance is enough
        require(_value <= allowance[_from][msg.sender]);    // Check allowance
        balanceOf[_from] -= _value;                         // Subtract from the targeted balance
        allowance[_from][msg.sender] -= _value;             // Subtract from the sender's allowance
        totalSupply -= _value;                              // Update totalSupply
        Burn(_from, _value);
        return true;
    }
}

Best Answer

The problem is that you are sending a non-zero value (1gwei in your example). If you want to transfer tokens then you have to set value to zero.

var rawTransaction = {
  "value": 0,
   ...
};

The reason is because for security functions that receive ether must have the payable modifier. Your transfer function doesn't have that modifier, and will reject any transaction with a non zero amount of ether.

function transfer(address _to, uint256 _value) public {
    _transfer(msg.sender, _to, _value);
}

Related Solutions

[Ethereum] Token transfer: Intrinsic gas too low

I suspect that your issue is because you have not approved the transfer required to call transferFrom(...).

Here are the relevant functions:

    /* Send coins */
    function transfer(address _to, uint256 _value) {
        if (balanceOf[msg.sender] < _value) throw;           // Check if the sender has enough
        if (balanceOf[_to] + _value < balanceOf[_to]) throw; // Check for overflows
        balanceOf[msg.sender] -= _value;                     // Subtract from the sender
        balanceOf[_to] += _value;                            // Add the same to the recipient
        Transfer(msg.sender, _to, _value);                   // Notify anyone listening that this transfer took place
    }

    /* Allow another contract to spend some tokens in your behalf */
    function approveAndCall(address _spender, uint256 _value, bytes _extraData)
        returns (bool success) {
        allowance[msg.sender][_spender] = _value;
        tokenRecipient spender = tokenRecipient(_spender);
        spender.receiveApproval(msg.sender, _value, this, _extraData);
        return true;
    }

    /* A contract attempts to get the coins */
    function transferFrom(address _from, address _to, uint256 _value) returns (bool success) {
        if (balanceOf[_from] < _value) throw;                 // Check if the sender has enough
        if (balanceOf[_to] + _value < balanceOf[_to]) throw;  // Check for overflows
        if (_value > allowance[_from][msg.sender]) throw;   // Check allowance
        balanceOf[_from] -= _value;                          // Subtract from the sender
        balanceOf[_to] += _value;                            // Add the same to the recipient
        allowance[_from][msg.sender] -= _value;
        Transfer(_from, _to, _value);
        return true;
    }

If you are the current owner of the tokens, you can call transfer(...) to transfer your balance to another address.

However if you want to transfer from another address, you will need to call transferFrom(...) which will check the allowance[...][...] data structure to confirm whether this transfer has been approved.

So, call approveAndCall(...) first to approve your transfer and you should be able to call transferFrom(...) to transfer your tokens.

When you call transferFrom(...) without first calling approveAndCall(...), and error is thrown in the line

if (_value > allowance[_from][msg.sender]) throw;   // Check allowance

This error will appear as an Out Of Gas error in the Ethereum Wallet.

If you are comfortable using geth, see How can the transaction status from a thrown error be detected when gas can be exactly the same as the gasUsed for a successful transaction? for the following code that can be used to check the exact reason for your error:

> var status = debug.traceTransaction("0xd23219e2ea10528b245deb9e47993cae2ffd3ffe9fc27aeb808e94fc4e75d37b")
undefined
> if (status.structLogs.length > 0) {
  console.log(status.structLogs[status.structLogs.length-1].error)
}
"invalid jump destination (PUSH1) 2"

[Ethereum] API to “Read Contract Information” to fetch stats of an ICO

Which version of web3 are you using?

Here is a working example with web3@^1.0.0-beta.34

const Web3 = require('web3');
contractAddress = '0xe7775a6e9bcf904eb39da2b68c5efb4f9360e08c';
provider = 'https://mainnet.infura.io';
const contractAbiJSON = '';//... The JSON abi

// Init
const web3 = new Web3(new web3.providers.HttpProvider(provider));

const contract = new web3.eth.Contract(contractAbiJSON, contractAddress);

contract.methods.totalSupply().call().then((totalSupply) => {
  console.log(totalSupply);
});

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Ethereum] Token transfer: Intrinsic gas too low

[Ethereum] API to “Read Contract Information” to fetch stats of an ICO

Related Topic