Can't send data to non-contract address using web3 1.0.0 and ganache

Question

Problem

According to this question, it is possible to send data to a non-contract address in Ethereum.

However, if I run my code which sends ether from the first account to the second account on Ganache, I get this:

err Error: Returned error: Attempting to run transaction which calls a contract function, but recipient address 0xe7d6a2a1cbed37ee7446d78fd5e6b38aaae3f3b2 is not a contract address

Code

const Tx = require('ethereumjs-tx');

const config = require('./config');
const web3 = require('./web3');

const genRawTx = async () => {
    const count = await web3.eth.getTransactionCount(config.accounts[0]);
    const nonce = web3.utils.toHex(count);

    const txValue = web3.utils.toHex(web3.utils.toWei('0.5', 'ether'));
    const txData = web3.utils.asciiToHex('Does this work?');
    console.log('txData', txData);

    const rawTx = {
        nonce: nonce, // Nonce is the times the address has transacted, should always be higher than the last nonce 0x0#
        from: config.accounts[0],
        to: config.accounts[1],
        value: txValue, // The value we are sending '0x16345785d8a0000' which is 0.1 Ether
        gas: '0xEA60', // 0xEA60 is 60,000
        gasPrice: '0x09184e72a000', // 0x09184e72a000 is 10 szabos or 10,000 gwei
        data: txData
    };

    const privateKey = Buffer.from(config.private, 'hex');
    const tx = new Tx(rawTx);
    tx.sign(privateKey);
    const serializedTx = tx.serialize();

    web3.eth.sendSignedTransaction('0x' + serializedTx.toString('hex'), (err, data) => {
        if (err) {
            console.log('err', err);
        } else {
            console.log('data', data);
        }
    })
    .on('receipt', console.log);
};

genRawTx();

Tools

• node 9.3.0
• web3 1.0.0-beta.34
• ganache 1.1.0

Is this a bug or I'm missing something?

Answer 1

Yes, it's a bug on Ganache.

If you look at the source code you'll see your error message.

There's a function _transactionIsContractCall() defined on line 849 which returns true if the transaction has some data. Which it does.

So Ganache is now thinking that you're calling a contract, so it expects something on code (the function you're calling on the contract).

But since your calling a non-contract account, you're not sending anything on code, so a new TXRejectedError is generated and the error messages is shown.

In Ethereum, you should be able to send data in every transaction, so I should categorize this as a bug.