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Upload program

Following the principles of Actor model for communication, uploading a program in the network is just one of the specific types of transactions that contain a Wasm file as a payload.

Uploading a new program (smart-contract) to the blockchain takes place by calling the custom extrinsic gear.uploadProgram(code, salt, initPayload, gasLimit, value). Where:

  • code: Bytes - binary Wasm code
  • salt: Bytes - the random data that is added to the hashing process to force their uniqueness
  • initPayload: Bytes- the init message payload that will be processed by the init() function during program initialization
  • gasLimit: u64 - the amount of gas that users are willing to spend on processing the upload of a new program
  • value: u128 - the value that will be transferred to a balance of the newly created account for the program

Program Balance​

For each created program, amount of VARA equal to existential deposit (currently 1 VARA) is locked as a fixed deposit at the program's balance and cannot be used throughout the program's lifetime. This deposit can only be withdrawn upon the program's termination through the gr_exit function or program' initialization failure.

At the time of a program’s initialization, the protocol deducts the existential deposit amount from the initiator’s balance, establishing the program’s minimal balance. It is also possible to allocate more than the ED value during the program's initialization.

When a program is created by another program, the system verifies whether the initiating program has a sufficient balance to cover the required deposit.

Program upload events​

Note: while extrinsics represent information from the outside world, events represent information from the chain. Extrinsics can trigger events.

The extrinsic that was called to upload a program triggers a series of events. Learn more about events here.

How to upload​

There are several ways to upload a program:

Upload via Gear Idea​

The easiest way to upload the program is to use the “Upload program” option in the Gear Idea portal - idea.gear-tech.io.

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Via Gear-JS library​

The Gear-JS library provides a simple and intuitive way to connect Vara Component APIs, including interaction with programs. More details: Gear API.

Via gear-program​

gear-program is the command line (CLI) utility for interacting with the blockchain network. Refer to gear-program GitHub repo for details.