& instead of 0x in to address

Question

I am trying to create a client that signs its own transactions.

To keep it simple, I have stripped everything that is not absolutely required from the example code. Hence the hard coded private key and addresses and gasLimit.

this function demonstrates the transaction:

import Tx from 'ethereumjs-tx';

export const executeTx = (web3) => {
    let privateKey = "fff7b3e0508db1b9059c7542e6287c5ff8013413dd9ced1ca50dc86916c0f353";
    let nonce = web3.toHex(web3.eth.getTransactionCount('0x77454e832261aeed81422348efee52d5bd3a3684') + 10000);

    var rawTx = {
        nonce: nonce,
        gasPrice: web3.toHex(web3.eth.gasPrice),
        gasLimit: web3.toHex(22000),
        to: '0xc347f6b2613e02f5d676f0cdc3215035cca4ecb1',
        from: '0x77454e832261aeed81422348efee52d5bd3a3684',
        value: '0x12',
        data: undefined,
    };

    let tx = new Tx(rawTx);
    tx.sign(Buffer.from(privateKey, 'hex'));
    let signedTxString = tx.serialize();

    web3.eth.sendRawTransaction('0x' + signedTxString.toString('hex'), function (err, hash) {
        if (err) {
            console.log(err);
        } else {
            console.log('transaction hash is', hash);
        }
    });
}

the result of this function is a transaction hash and no error. In the log of my local geth node I can see a strange entry which explains why the transaction does not actually result in a transfer:

Tx(127f1a8ecb09f2380b54f9facd5b4102b3b9d1907065661ebc59cad6531fec22) to: &c347f6b2613e02f5d676f0cdc3215035cca4ecb1

notice the & instead of the usual 0x at the beginning of the to address and the missing 0x at the beginning of the Tx value.

This is the log entry for a successful transaction:

Tx(0xa711dfdc9c74b4de63bf9de272fb693507f4566bababfb0550aecb6f5a9c2181) to: 0x196f3a37dc3c7b378f504201545971e9d9b3d466

for completeness, here is a version of the code that uses eth-lightwallet to do the same thing and strangely enough with the same result.

import {signing} from 'eth-lightwallet';
import {keystore} from 'eth-lightwallet';
import {txutils} from 'eth-lightwallet';
import W3 from 'web3';

export const executeTxLW = () => {
    let provider = new W3.providers.HttpProvider('http://localhost:8545');
    let web3 = new W3(provider);

    let privateKey = "fff7b3e0508db1b9059c7542e6287c5ff8013413dd9ced1ca50dc86916c0f353";
    let nonce = web3.toHex(web3.eth.getTransactionCount('0x77454e832261aeed81422348efee52d5bd3a3684') + 10000);

    keystore.createVault({
        password: 'ppp',
        seedPhrase: "address wealth torch panel aspect brief edit found invite dumb build neither",
        salt: "jpOdt6rKmZuEEKWDVhdFLaudYweyck+6fZPjJSzRcgc="
    }, (err, ks) => {
        if (err) {
            console.log(err);
            return;
        }

        ks.keyFromPassword('ppp', (err, pwDerivedKey) => {
            if (err) {
                console.log(err);
                return;
            }
            ks.generateNewAddress(pwDerivedKey);
            console.log(ks.getAddresses()[0]); //should be 0x77454e832261aeed81422348efee52d5bd3a3684

            var rawTx = {
                nonce: nonce,
                gasPrice: web3.toHex(web3.eth.gasPrice),
                gasLimit: web3.toHex(22000),
                to: '0xD0362fa02fE45367fd7b5fd126ee94a42a57D779',
                from: '0x77454e832261aeed81422348efee52d5bd3a3684',
                value: web3.toHex(web3.toWei(1, "ether")),
                data: undefined,
            };

            let rawTxString = txutils.valueTx(rawTx);
            let signedTxString = signing.signTx(ks, pwDerivedKey, '0x' + rawTxString, '0x77454e832261aeed81422348efee52d5bd3a3684');

            web3.eth.sendRawTransaction('0x' + signedTxString.toString('hex'), function (err, hash) {
                if (err) {
                    console.log(err);
                } else {
                    console.log('transaction hash is', hash);
                }
            });
        });
    });
}

could this be an issue with geth?

Answer 1

the issue was actually the computing of the nonce

it appears that when the nonce is too high geth drops the transaction silently.

I wanted to make sure that my nonces would not conflict by adding a lot to the nonce:

let nonce = web3.toHex(web3.eth.getTransactionCount('0x77454e832261aeed81422348efee52d5bd3a3684') + 10000)

this turns out to be an error.

it also appears that the & in the log is not a sign of error. I continue to get the to address prefixed with an & even now that my transactions go through.