evm

fabric-x-evm

Run Solidity smart contracts on Fabric-X. Fabric-x-evm exposes a standard Ethereum JSON-RPC endpoint, so your existing contracts, tools (Hardhat, Foundry, MetaMask), and workflows work without modification — while the chain underneath gives you Fabric-X's high throughput and low latency, permissioned access control, and enterprise-grade consensus.

Prerequisites

• Docker with Compose v2
• Foundry (cast) — for the demo deploy/transfer commands
• MetaMask browser extension (optional, for the wallet walkthrough)

Quick start

Stand up a full Fabric-X EVM network with a block explorer in two commands:

make init     # generate crypto material (one-time)
make start    # start the network + Blockscout explorer

To run without the block explorer use make start-node instead.

Verify the RPC is live:

curl -s http://localhost:8545 \
  -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_blockNumber","params":[],"id":1}'
# → {"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"result":"0x..."}   (result is the current block height, in hex)

The block explorer is at http://localhost:8000 (may take a minute to fully load).

Deploy a token

Deploy an ERC-20 token by choosing a name and symbol. The contract (src/Token.sol) is a standard OpenZeppelin ERC-20 with name, symbol, and initial supply passed to the constructor. The deploy uses the prebuilt erc20.bin; edit the source and run make build to recompile it. The built-in test accounts have no gas cost, so no prefunding is needed.

make deploy NAME="Digital Euro" SYMBOL=EURX

The explorer URL is printed immediately:

Deployed Digital Euro (EURX): http://localhost:8000/address/0x...

Transfer tokens

make transfer TO=0xf39Fd6e51aad88F6F4ce6aB8827279cffFb92266 AMOUNT=500

Transferred 500 tokens to 0x...: http://localhost:8000/tx/0x...

Verify the contract

Publish the source so the explorer can match it against the deployed bytecode. Verification is done locally by the bundled verifier service — no external lookups:

# pass the same NAME/SYMBOL/SUPPLY you deployed with:
make verify NAME="Digital Euro" SYMBOL=EURX

Once verified, the explorer shows the Solidity source and unlocks the Read Contract / Write Contract tabs — call balanceOf, transfer, and the rest straight from the browser, with no extra tooling. Prefer clicking? Open the contract's Contract → Verify & publish tab and paste src/Token.sol instead.

You're now running your own Fabric-X EVM network. Deploy your own contracts with any tooling you're familiar with.

Add to MetaMask (optional)

To use MetaMask with the test wallet, import this private key (instructions): open the extension → your account → Add Wallet → Private Key, and enter 0xac0974bec39a17e36ba4a6b4d238ff944bacb478cbed5efcae784d7bf4f2ff80.

Warning

This is the well-known Hardhat account #0. Never use it on a public network — it will be drained instantly.

Important

If you've used MetaMask with this network before and restarted with a clean state, reset the account: Settings → Developer tools → Delete activity and nonce data.

Open the token URL from the deploy step. Scroll to the bottom and click "Add Fabric-X EVM" to add the network to MetaMask (only needed once):

Then click the MetaMask logo next to the token contract address to add the token to your wallet:

Switch to MetaMask and confirm the tokens arrived. Try sending some back — there's no gas cost, so experimenting is free.

Stop and reset

make stop    # stop all containers (data is preserved)
make purge   # stop and delete all data

After a purge, reset MetaMask: Settings → Developer tools → Delete activity and nonce data.

Next steps

Point any Ethereum tooling at http://localhost:8545 with chain ID 4011 (or your custom CHAIN_ID).

Hardhat — add a network entry to hardhat.config.js:

networks: {
  fabricx: {
    url: "http://localhost:8545",
    chainId: 4011,
    accounts: ["0x59c6995e998f97a5a0044966f0945389dc9e86dae88c7a8412f4603b6b78690d"]
  }
}

Foundry — add to foundry.toml and deploy:

[rpc_endpoints]
fabricx = "http://localhost:8545"

forge create --rpc-url fabricx \
  --private-key 0x59c6995e998f97a5a0044966f0945389dc9e86dae88c7a8412f4603b6b78690d \
  src/MyContract.sol:MyContract

To learn more about Fabric-X, visit the fabric-x and fabric-x-evm repositories.

Alternative runtimes

Pass DOCKER=podman COMPOSE="podman compose" to any make target:

make start DOCKER=podman COMPOSE="podman compose"