Zilliqa is about to get easier to use than ever with the rollout of EVM compatibility on the network.
EVM compatibility has been launched on testnet and opens the low-fee, high-throughput Zilliqa protocol to the wider EVM ecosystem, allowing more people to use and build applications on the blockchain.
One of the biggest immediate benefits that EVM compatibility brings is the ability to use EVM wallets and tools with Zilliqa – including MetaMask.
MetaMask is a popular browser-based wallet for Ethereum and EVM-compatible blockchains that makes it easy to store and use tokens across several networks.
With EVM compatibility now being tested on Zilliqa, you can now send and receive ZIL directly from MetaMask and use the wallet to start using and building Solidity contracts on Zilliqa.
Note that MetaMask currently only works with the Zilliqa testnet. Once EVM compatibility has been fully tested and deployed on the mainnet, MetaMask will work with the mainnet Zilliqa network.
Here’s how you can start using MetaMask with the Zilliqa testnet today.
Connecting MetaMask to Zilliqa testnet
Connecting MetaMask directly to the Zilliqa mainnet will open up exciting new opportunities for DeFi and dApp integration across major blockchain networks.
For now, you can connect MetaMask to the Zilliqa testnet and try out deploying EVM contracts on the Zilliqa network. To get started, open your MetaMask wallet and navigate to the Settings menu.
From here, select the Add Network option to open MetaMask’s network configuration page in a new tab. Select Add a network manually at the bottom of this page.
You’ll then be prompted to fill out a number of fields to add the network. Enter the information below and select Save to connect your MetaMask wallet to the Zilliqa testnet:
- Network Name: Zilliqa EVM Testnet
- RPC URL: https://evm-api-dev.zilliqa.com
- Chain ID: 33101
- Currency: ZIL
- Explorer: https://evmx.zilliqa.com/
Once this is complete, you’ve successfully connected your MetaMask wallet to Zilliqa. You can switch networks at any time using the option at the top of the MetaMask extension interface.
Adding ZIL to your MetaMask wallet
To start using MetaMask to interact with dApps and smart contracts on the Zilliqa testnet, you’ll first need some ZIL.
The easiest way to load up your MetaMask wallet with ZIL is to visit the Zilliqa testnet public faucet.
Once on this page, you can copy your ZIL testnet address from MetaMask and enter it into the faucet field – no conversion needed. Click Run Faucet to have a small amount of ZIL for testing sent directly to your MetaMask wallet.
You can also send testnet ZIL from ZilPay or other wallets to your MetaMask wallet, just ensure that both wallets are using testnet tokens. When sending from a ZIL wallet to MetaMask, you may need to convert your MetaMask wallet address to a ZIL address format.
This can be done easily by navigating to the DevEx block explorer and entering your “0x”-formatted address into the search field at the top of the page. From here, you can press the small “recycle” button next to the address to change between “zil” and “0x” address formats.
You can now use your “zil”-formatted address to send ZIL from a testnet ZIL wallet to your MetaMask wallet.
Using EVM tools on Zilliqa
Thanks to its EVM compatibility, the Zilliqa testnet should work with MetaMask, Hardhat, Truffle, and other EVM wallets and clients.
Now that you’ve connected your MetaMask wallet to the Zilliqa testnet and loaded it with ZIL, you can start to use EVM development environments like RemixIDE.
RemixIDE is a browser-based IDE which can be used to write and deploy Solidity smart contracts to EVM-compatible blockchains. To start testing Solidity smart contracts on Zilliqa, head to RemixIDE and connect your MetaMask wallet.
RemixIDE lets you use a connected MetaMask wallet as the deployment environment for your code, which makes deploying smart contracts on the Zilliqa testnet as easy as changing a single setting.
Under the Deploy & Run Transactions section in RemixIDE, simply click on the Environment field and select Injected Provider – MetaMask from the drop-down menu.
This will now allow you to write and deploy Solidity contracts directly to the Zilliqa testnet in the same way you would for any other EVM-compatible blockchain, making it easier than ever to build dApps on the low-fee, high-throughput Zilliqa network.
Other IDEs and EVM-compatible tools can be used with similar ease on the Zilliqa testnet now that EVM compatibility has been implemented.
We encourage developers to try out this support by migrating dApps to the Zilliqa blockchain and building on Zilliqa using familiar EVM development tools.
Road to EVM on mainnet
Bringing EVM compatibility to mainnet will be a carefully managed, multi-stage process that will ensure that smart contracts run reliably on the Zilliqa network and enable a wider ecosystem of developers to take advantage of the blockchain’s unique features.
EVM compatibility opens the Zilliqa protocol to a greater number of builders and projects, which means the efficiencies of Zilliqa are more accessible than ever and Scilla developers will have a much wider audience for their applications.
There are several integrations that are still being deployed on the EVM testnet, including integration between the ZRC-2 and ERC-20 standards for fungible tokens and interoperability between Scilla and Solidity smart contracts.
To find out more about what EVM compatibility means for Zilliqa, read our announcement on EVM coming to Zilliqa.
For more information about EVM compatibility on the Zilliqa testnet, please visit the Zilliqa Developer Portal.