PolkaVM Hardhat Template

A starter template for building and deploying Solidity contracts to both EVM and PolkaVM (Polkadot) from a single project, using Hardhat + resolc + Foundry.

Click "Use this template" on GitHub to create your own repository, drop your contracts into src/, and deploy to Anvil, a local PolkaVM node, or a testnet with one command.

The same Solidity compiles two ways:

• EVM via solc: Anvil, Base Sepolia, Ethereum Sepolia, any EVM chain.
• PolkaVM via resolc (@parity/hardhat-polkadot): a local revive dev node, Polkadot Hub testnet.

This template was produced under the ZK Email Kusama grant (Milestone 2) as the reusable project-structure / tooling outcome, stripped of the zkemail-specific verifier contracts and shipped with a plain Counter example so anyone can reuse it.

What's in here

Path	Purpose
src/Counter.sol	Example contract. Replace with your own.
hh-ignition/modules/Counter.ts	Hardhat Ignition deployment module (primary deploy path).
test/Counter.t.sol	Foundry test.
hardhat.config.ts	solc + resolc build targets and EVM / PolkaVM networks.
foundry.toml	Foundry build/test config.
bin/setup-dev-node.sh	Downloads the local PolkaVM dev node + eth-rpc adapter.

Prerequisites

• Node.js + Yarn
• Foundry (forge, anvil, cast) for tests and the EVM local flow
• macOS (arm64) or Linux (x86_64) for the bundled PolkaVM dev-node binaries

Install dependencies:

yarn

Environment

Copy .env.example to .env and fill in what you need:

Variable	Required	Description
PRIVATE_KEY	For deploys	EOA private key used to broadcast transactions (Hardhat accounts when set).
ETHERSCAN_API_KEY	Verification only	API key for an Etherscan-compatible explorer.

localEvm and localPvm use a fixed http://127.0.0.1:8545 URL; PRIVATE_KEY is only attached when set, so local PolkaVM dev defaults work even when you omit it.

Build

yarn build      # hardhat compile (solc + resolc)

Test

forge test

Local deploy

A) Local PolkaVM node

Terminal 1, fetch the dev-node binaries (once) and start the node:

yarn setup-pvm-node   # download dev-node + eth-rpc binaries (once)
yarn pvm-node         # start the local PolkaVM node + Eth-RPC adapter

This starts the revive dev node and an Eth-RPC adapter on 127.0.0.1:8545.

Terminal 2, build and deploy against the localPvm network:

yarn build
yarn deploy localPvm

B) Local EVM (Anvil)

Terminal 1:

anvil

Terminal 2, build and deploy against the localEvm network:

yarn build
yarn deploy localEvm

No PRIVATE_KEY needed: with none set, Hardhat uses Anvil's default unlocked account #0 (same as the localPvm flow). Set PRIVATE_KEY in .env only if you want to deploy from a specific account.

Testnet deploy

Create and fund a wallet

The deployer account needs testnet funds to deploy. Create a fresh keypair (Foundry's cast ships with this repo):

cast wallet new
# Successfully created new keypair.
# Address:     0xYourAddress...
# Private key: 0xYourPrivateKey...

Put the private key into .env (add RPC_URL to override the default RPC for the target network):

PRIVATE_KEY=<the private key from your cast wallet new output above>

Fund the address with testnet PAS, then confirm it arrived:

• Faucet: https://faucet.polkadot.io/, select the Polkadot Hub TestNet (Paseo Asset Hub) and paste your address.
• Explorer: https://blockscout-testnet.polkadot.io/address/<your address>

For the EVM testnets below, use that chain's own faucet (e.g. a Base Sepolia or Ethereum Sepolia faucet) to fund the same address.

Deploy

Pass a network keyed by chain ID from hardhat.config.ts:

yarn deploy 420420417   # Polkadot Hub testnet (PolkaVM)
yarn deploy 84532       # Base Sepolia (EVM)
yarn deploy 11155111    # Ethereum Sepolia (EVM)

Hardhat Ignition stores deployment artifacts under hh-ignition/deployments.

Verify

EVM

For EVM networks with a working Etherscan-compatible API (e.g. Base Sepolia):

yarn verify chain-84532

PolkaVM

Source-code verification is not currently possible for PolkaVM deployments. The contract is resolc-compiled to PolkaVM/RISC-V bytecode; the Blockscout explorer's verification API and @nomicfoundation/hardhat-verify both only support EVM solc/Vyper bytecode, and @parity/hardhat-polkadot does not yet provide a resolc-aware verify task. This is a PolkaVM tooling gap, not a deployment issue.

The contract is still fully visible on Blockscout (address, PolkaVM bytecode, transactions) and is exercisable via its read/write methods.

Adding your own contract

1. Add your contract under src/ (remove Counter.sol if you don't need it).
2. Update hh-ignition/modules/Counter.ts (or add a new module) to deploy it, passing any constructor args via m.contract("YourContract", [args]).
3. Point the deploy script in package.json at your module.
4. Update the Foundry test/ files to match.

Command reference

Command	Description
yarn build	Compile contracts with Hardhat (solc + resolc).
yarn deploy <network>	Deploy with Hardhat Ignition to the given network.
yarn verify chain-<id>	Verify an Ignition deployment.
yarn setup-pvm-node	Download the local PolkaVM dev node + eth-rpc adapter.
yarn pvm-node	Start the local PolkaVM node + Eth-RPC adapter.
forge test	Run Foundry tests.

License

MIT