Getting Ethereum Token Transfers Using Ethers and Web3
In the world of decentralized finance (DeFi), blockchain technology enables secure and transparent transactions. Among the many cryptocurrencies available, Ethereum is one of the most popular platforms for creating smart contracts and interacting with decentralized applications (dApps). When it comes to tracking token transfers, Ethereum’s native functionality can be quite complex, but there are ways to get this information using Ethers and Web3.
Understanding ERC721 Tokens
Before we dive into the solution, let’s briefly review what ERC721 tokens are. ERC721 is a standard for creating non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the Ethereum blockchain. These NFTs represent unique digital assets, such as art, collectibles, or in-game items. When a transaction involving an ERC721 token occurs, you want to know how many times that token has been transferred through a specific wallet or address.
Getting Token Transfers with Ether
If you want to get the number of transfers of a specific ERC721 token from a transaction, you can use Ethers built-in functions. Here is a step-by-step guide:
- Get Transaction Data: First, you need to retrieve transaction data associated with the Ethereum network. You can do this by sending an
eth_getTransactionrequest to the Ethereum API using the web3 library.
const web3 = require('web3');
const ethers = require('web3');
const web3Instance = new web3(new Web3.providers.HttpProvider('
const transaction = await web3Instance.eth.getTransactionByHash('0x...'); // Replace your transaction with the hash
const contractAddress = '0x...'; // ERC721 token contract address
- Get the contract ABI: Before you can get the transfer count, you need to get the ABI (Application Binary Interface) of the ERC721 contract.
transaction.abi.forEach((bytecode) => {
const abi = JSON.parse(bytecode.toString());
// Get the name and symbol of the ERC721 token from its ABI
const contractName = abi.name;
const contractSymbol = abi.symbol;
});
- Get the transfer count: You can now use the
contractAddress' function to get the transfer count using Ethers built-in functioneth_getTransferCount’.
const transferCount = await ethers.getContractInfoAsync(contractAddress, 'balanceOf');
Receiving token transfers via Web3
While Ethers offers a simpler way to retrieve transaction data and contract information, Web3 offers additional features for interacting with smart contracts.
To get the number of ERC721 token transfers from a specific Ethereum wallet or address, you can use the Ethers eth_getTransactionCount function with the following parameters:
- chainId: Chain ID that can be assigned (e.g. 1 for Ethereum Mainnet)
- transactionHash
: Transaction hash
- contractaddress: ERC721 contract address
const web3Instance = new web3(new Web3.providers.HttpProvider('
const transactionHash = '0x...'; // Replace your transaction with the hash
const contractAddress = '0x...'; // ERC721 token contract address
const transferCount = await ethers.getContractInfoAsync(contractAddress, 'balanceOf', {
chainId: web3Instance.eth.net === 'mainnet'? 1: web3Instance.eth.net,
transactionHash,
});
Conclusion
In summary, you can retrieve information about the number of ERC721 token transfers from a specific Ethereum wallet or address using Ethers. You will gain this valuable information when you understand how to extract transaction data and connect the ABI, as well as using the Web3 eth_getTransactionCount function.
