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Build an Ethereum Wallet with Angular

Let's see how to build a simple Ethereum wallet with Angular using a BIP32 Hierarchical Deterministic Wallet (HDWallet).

Warning: this is an educational purpose tutorial. Please do not use this method to store crypto assets from the mainnet.

Setup

We will use Angular with @angular/material for the front-end and ethers.js for the cryptographic part. We use ethers.js instead of web3 because it supports out-of-the-box HDWallet.

Angular

First install @angular/cli:

npm install -g @angular/cli

Then in the directory where you want to scaffold your project runs:

ng new hdwallet --style scss --routing true --prefix hdwallet
cd hdwallet
ng add @angular/material

Create a ui module where we'll export all @angular/material modules :

ng generate module ui

Then imports the UiModule into your AppModule.

Ethers

Ethers.js is a library written in Typescript that provides high and low level API to build Decentralized Applications (Dapps) on top of Ethereum.

Run :

$> npm install ethers --save

Create an Ethereum Wallet

Here is how we will create the Ethereum wallet :

  1. Generate a random 12 words long mnemonic based on BIP39
  2. Use the mnemonic string to create an BIP32 HDWallet.
  3. Derive an Ethereum private key from the HDWallet with a BIP44 path.
  4. Encode the private key with a password. The encoded result is called keystore.
  5. Store the keystore into the localstorage.

ethers handles 1, 2 and 3 with the method Wallet.getRandom().

BIP stands for "Bitcoin Improvement Proposals", like the EIP for Ethereum, but some cryptographic based improvements can be used for Ethereum.

UI

We'll use the @angular/material stepper to handle this steps.

In your ui.module.ts imports the MatStepperModule :

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { MatStepperModule } from '@angular/material/stepper';

@NgModule({
  exports: [MatStepperModule]
})
export class UiModule { }

Then create a component generate:

ng generate component generate

And inside the generate.component.html add the stepper like in this example.

Mnemonic

BIP39

A BIP39 mnemonic is a group of easy to remember words to generate deterministic wallets. It's easier for human to handle words than hexadecimal values. The mnemonic can be written on paper making it a better, typo tolerant, backup for your private key.

Generate a Random Mnemonic

Inside generate.component.ts add a mnemonic property and a method that will create a random mnemonic with the right entropy.

import { Component, OnInit } from '@angular/core';
import { Wallet } from 'ethers';

@Component({
  selector: 'hdwallet-generate',
  templateUrl: './generate.component.html',
  styleUrls: ['./generate.component.scss']
})
export class GenerateComponent implements OnInit {
  public wallet: Wallet;
  public mnemonic: string[];

  ngOnInit() {
    this.randomMnemonic();
  }

  /** Generate a random Mnemonic with the right entropy */
  public randomMnemonic() {
    this.wallet = Wallet.createRandom();
    this.mnemonic = this.wallet.mnemonic.split(' ');
  }
}

We want to show the mnemonic to the user so he can write them down. We use an Array for mnemonic to get the index of each word.

This will generate 12 english words. To use other language you can use this more complexe method.

Display the 12 Words

In the HTML display the words:

<!-- First Step -->
<mat-step>
  <ng-template matStepLabel>Write those words down</ng-template>
  <button mat-button (click)="randomMnemonic()">
    <mat-icon>autorenew</mat-icon>
    Generate new words
  </button>
  <mat-list>
    <mat-list-item *ngFor="let word of mnemonic; let i = index">
      {{ i + 1 }} - {{ word }}
    </mat-list-item>
  </mat-list>
</mat-step>

UX - Check the user has written down the words

Most of the users won't bother writting the mnemonic, but if they loose it, they won't be able to recover their wallet.

In the next step, let's add a form to test 3 random words.

/** Create a test for the mnemonic */
public createTestWords(amount: number) {
  const mnemonic = [...this.mnemonic];
  this.testWords = Array(amount)
    .fill('')
    .map(_ => {
      const rand = Math.floor(Math.random() * mnemonic.length);
      const word = mnemonic.splice(rand)[0];
      const index = this.mnemonic.indexOf(word);
      return { word, index };
    })
    .sort((a, b) => a.index - b.index);
}

This method should be called each time the user goes to the second step.

Get an Ethereum keystore

HDWallet

The method Wallet.createRandom() generates a random mnemonic and creates a HDWallet under-the-hood.

A BIP32 HDWallet consists of a chain of keypairs. There is a lot of interesting cryptography here that we won't cover. You can find more here.

Get a Private Key

To access a specific keypair in this tree, we'll need a derivation path. BIP44 defines a 5 levels path for handling multi-coins addresses, amongst other things. It looks like that :

m / purpose' / coin_type' / account' / change / address_index

The path used by default by Wallet.createRandom() method is : m/44'/60'/0'/0/0.

If you want a low-level access to the HDWallet you can use the HDNode class instead.

Encrypt the private key

On step 3 we should ask the user the enter and confirm this password.

<!-- Third Step: Ask for a password -->
<mat-step>
  <ng-template matStepLabel>Enter password</ng-template>
  <form (ngSubmit)="createWallet()" [formGroup]="passwordForm" fxLayout="column">
    <ng-template matStepLabel>Fill out your name</ng-template>
    <mat-form-field>
      <input type="password" matInput placeholder="Password" formControlName="pwd" required />
    </mat-form-field>
    <mat-form-field>
      <input type="password" matInput placeholder="Confirm" formControlName="confirm" required />
    </mat-form-field>
    <button type="submit" mat-button>Create Wallet</button>
  </form>
</mat-step>

With this password we can now encrypt the private key and save the result into the localstore.

/** Check password and confirm are the same */
public createWallet() {
  if (this.passwordForm.valid) {
    const pwd = this.passwordForm.get('pwd').value;
    this.encryptPrivatekey(pwd);
  }
}

/** Get a private key and encrypt it with a password */
private async encryptPrivatekey(password: string) {
  const keystore = await this.wallet.encrypt(password);
  localStorage.setItem('keystore', keystore);
}

The method encrypt() can take a long time. You may want to add a loading feedback.

Display the Account

Now that we've stored the keystore, we should display the address and the Ether balance to the user.

Login to a Wallet

Store the current Wallet in a Service

Create a service :

ng generate service hdwallet

This service will store the Wallet object based on the keystore from the localstorage and the password (ask later to the user).

import { Injectable } from '@angular/core';
import { Wallet } from 'ethers';

@Injectable({
  providedIn: 'root'
})
export class HdwalletService {

  public wallet: Wallet;

  public async login(password: string) {
    try {
      const keystore = localStorage.getItem('keystore');
      this.wallet = await Wallet.fromEncryptedJson(keystore, password);
    } catch (err) {
      throw new Error(err);
    }
  }
}

The method fromEncryptedJson() can take a long time. You may want to add a loading feedback.

Ask for the Password

Let's create a component to ask the password of the user :

ng generate component password

This page will be shown to the user only if the item "keystore" in the localstorage exists (we'll add routes and guards later).

Inject the service into this component, login, and in case of success, navigate to the display route.

import { Component } from '@angular/core';
import { Router } from '@angular/router';
import { HdwalletService } from './../hdwallet.service';

@Component({
  selector: 'hdwallet-password',
  templateUrl: './password.component.html',
  styleUrls: ['./password.component.scss']
})
export class PasswordComponent {

  constructor(
    private service: HdwalletService,
    private router: Router
  ) { }

  public async login(password: string) {
    try {
      await this.service.login(password);
      this.router.navigate(['display']);
    } catch (err) {
      console.log(err);
    }
  }
}

Display Component

Create a new component:

ng generate component display

Let's keep it simple for now, the display component will only show the address:

import { Component, OnInit } from '@angular/core';
import { HdwalletService } from './../hdwallet.service';

@Component({
  selector: 'hdwallet-display',
  templateUrl: './display.component.html',
  styleUrls: ['./display.component.scss']
})
export class DisplayComponent implements OnInit {
  public address: string;

  constructor(private service: HdwalletService) { }

  ngOnInit() {
    this.address = this.service.wallet.address;
  }

}

Routes and Guards

Now that we have all our components we can create the routes:

  • If has no keystore: generate (GenerateComponent)
  • If has keystore: password (PasswordComponent)
  • If has password: display (DisplayComponent)
const routes: Routes = [
  { path: '', redirectTo: 'password', pathMatch: 'full' },
  { path: 'password', component: PasswordComponent, canActivate: [HasKeystoreGuard] },
  { path: 'display', component: DisplayComponent, canActivate: [HasPasswordGuard] },
  { path: 'generate', component: GenerateComponent }
];

The HasKeystoreGuard will navigate to generate if no keystore has been found in the localstorage.

Connect to the network

To interact with a netword we need to create a provider. It's a simple HTTPS connection to a node of the specific network. By default we will connect to the testnet "ropsten".

In the service, update the login() method :

public wallet: Wallet;
public provider: ethers.providers.BaseProvider;

public async login(password: string) {
  try {
    const keystore = localStorage.getItem('keystore');
    this.provider = ethers.getDefaultProvider('ropsten');
    const wallet = await Wallet.fromEncryptedJson(keystore, password);
    this.wallet = wallet.connect(this.provider);
  } catch (err) {
    throw new Error(err);
  }
}

Display the balance

Ethers are very large numbers (at least 10^18). They are bigger than what a Javascript number can handle. Therefore we need to use a BigNumber library to deal with it. Then we convert to a string to display it.

In hdwallet.service, add this method :

public async getBalance() {
  const balance = await this.wallet.getBalance();
  return ethers.utils.formatEther(balance).toString();
}

The balance is in Wei. We first need to format is into Ethers before displaying it.

We should call this method each time a transaction signed by this account has been mined. But if the user does a transaction outside of this wallet, we won't be updated.

There are two solutions :

  1. Listen on new block, and call this method again.
  2. Add a reload button that the user can trigger himself.

I think the 1st solution would have the best UX, but would trigger too much useless network calls. The reload button will do the job.

Send a Transaction

Let's send some Ethers to another address. The method is very simple and require only two entries:

  • to: The address you are sending the ethers to.
  • value: The amount of wei (10^18 ethers) to send.

You'll need to add some ethers to your account. Use a faucet for that.

  1. Add a FormGroup in the DisplayComponent ...
this.txForm = this.fb.group({
  'to': ['', Validators.required],
  'value': [0, Validators.required]
});
  1. Add a sendTx() method in the service :
public sendTx({ to, value }: TransactionRequest) {
  return this.wallet.sendTransaction({
    to,
    value: ethers.utils.parseEther(value.toString())
  });
}

We use the parseEther() method to transform Ethers into Weis.