How to Use a Signer in Ethers.js
This guide will introduce you to use a Signer in Ethers.js and level up your Web3 stack!
What is a Signer in ethers.js?
A Signer is an abstraction to the Ethereum Account that has access to a private key, which grants access to messages and transactions to be securely signed off-chain while maintaining an interaction with the blockchain.
A Signer allows you to verify that you own a particular account, so that you can send transactions to the blockchain from that account.
Ethers.js Signer Use Cases
The following are four potential use cases of a Signer within Ethers.js:
- Balances - use signer.getBalance to retrieve the balance of a user’s wallet
- ENS Domains - use signer.resolveName to retrieve the ENS domain connected to the wallet address.
- Signing - use signer.signTransaction to sign a transaction to confirm ownership by a specific wallet address.
- Wallet - use ethers.Wallet to create a new wallet by passing in a private key identifying the owner of the wallet.
There are many more use cases that can be explored by visiting the Signer docs, here.
How to Use a Signer with the Alchemy SDK
This example will teach you how to send a transaction using the Alchemy SDK. Please Note: The following code snippets require prior installation of alchemy-SDK.