Deterministic deployment using CREATE2 on ZKsync

Introduction

Enshrined into the EVM as part of the Constantinople fork of 2019, CREATE2 is an opcode that started its journey as EIP-1014. CREATE2 allows you to deploy smart contracts to deterministic addresses, based on parameters controlled by the deployer. As a result, it’s often mentioned as enabling “counterfactual” deployments, where you can interact with an addresses that haven’t been created yet because CREATE2 guarantees known code can be placed at that address. This is in contrast to the CREATE opcode, where the address of the deployed contract is a function of the deployer’s nonce. With CREATE2, you can use the same deployer account to deploy contracts to the same address across multiple networks, even if the address has varying nonces.

ℹ️ Note This guide is intended to help understand CREATE2. In most use cases, you won’t need to write and use your own deployer, and can use an existing deterministic deployer (new MyContract{salt: salt}()).

In this tutorial, we will:

  1. Look at a CREATE2 factory implementation.
  2. Deploy the factory using the traditional deployment methods.
  3. Use this deployed factory to in turn deploy a simple counter contract at a deterministic address.
  4. Simulate this set of events by writing a simple test using Foundry ZKsync.

Prerequisites

  1. Some familiarity with Solidity and Foundry is required, and some familiarity with inline assembly is recommended. Refer to the official Solidity docs for a primer on inline assembly.

  2. Make sure you have Foundry ZKsync installed on your system.

  3. Initialize a new Foundry project.

  4. Install the ZKsync contracts by running the following command in your project directory:

    forge install matter-labs/era-contracts

CREATE2 Factory

Create a file named Create2ZK.sol Inside the src directory. Initialize a contract named Create2ZK like this:

// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.20;

contract Create2ZK {

    error Create2FailedDeployment();
}

The error is meant to enforce some sanity checks on the factory deployment, and revert the whole transaction when triggered. The Create2FailedDeployment() error triggers if the deployment fails for any reason.

ℹ️ Note

Please note that a CREATE2 deployment may fail due to a number of reasons. For example, if the bytecodeHash is invalid, or if a contract is already deployed at the computed address. Your deployment may also fail if your constructor reverts for any reason.

Next, create a function named deploy:

function deploy(bytes32 salt, bytes32 bytecodeHash, bytes calldata inputData) external payable returns (address addr) {
 
 }

This function takes 3 inputs:

  1. The salt used to calculate the final address. This can basically be any random value we want it to be.
  2. The bytecodeHash of the contract that we want to deploy.
  3. The inputData which are the constructor parameters of the contract.

The address of the newly deployed contract is the returned after a successful deploy.

ℹ️ Note

You can send ETH to a contract that is being deployed using CREATE2, but only if it has a payable constructor. If you try to send ETH to it without a payable constructor, the transaction will revert.

Next, we will call the create2 function from the ContractDeployer system contract on ZKsync. This can be done by calling SystemContractsCaller.systemCallWithReturndata to interact with system contracts:

To call the create2 function, we need to pass in 3 parameters:

    (bool success, bytes memory returnData) = SystemContractsCaller
        .systemCallWithReturndata(
            uint32(gasleft()),
            address(DEPLOYER_SYSTEM_CONTRACT),
            uint128(0),
            abi.encodeCall(
                DEPLOYER_SYSTEM_CONTRACT.create2,
                (
                    salt,
                    bytecodeHash,
                    inputData
                )
            )
        );
  1. The salt: This is used to differentiate contract deployments and ensure unique contract addresses. It is a key part of the deterministic address generation in CREATE2.
  2. The bytecodeHash: In ZKsync, contracts are deployed using the hash of the bytecode, not the bytecode itself.
  3. The inputData: This contains the constructor arguments for the contract being deployed. Similar to traditional contract deployment, this field passes the initialization data to the contract being deployed.

Alternatively, instead of writing your own deployment logic, you can leverage the CREATE2Factory.sol system contract, which simplifies calling the create2 method. In many cases, you won’t need to manually write a deployer function since you can use existing deterministic deployers, such as the CREATE2Factory.sol system contract, or deploy contracts directly using the new MyContract{salt: salt}() syntax.

Here’s an example of how you can use the CREATE2Factory.sol:

import {Create2Factory} from "era-contracts/system-contracts/contracts/Create2Factory.sol";

Create2Factory create2Factory = new Create2Factory();
address deployedAddress = create2Factory.create2(
    salt,
    bytecodeHash,
    abi.encode()
);

This method allows you to deploy a contract deterministically without having to write the deployment logic from scratch. It handles the create2 call and returns the address of the newly deployed contract.

This approach simplifies the deployment process by using a pre-built deployer contract, making it easier to manage and reuse your deployment logic across different projects.

Finally, if the deployment fails for any reason, you can handle it by reverting the transaction, similar to how you would handle failure in the EVM:

if (!success) {
    revert Create2FailedDeployment();
}

Computing the Contract Address on zkSync

Lastly, we will create a view function named computeAddress. This function should take in the salt, bytecodeHash, and constructorInput as parameters and return the address of the contract that would be deployed using the deploy function on ZKsync:

function computeAddress(
    address sender,
    bytes32 salt, 
    bytes32 bytecodeHash, 
    bytes32 constructorInputHash
) external view returns (address addr) {

 }

Inside the function, we’ll use the L2ContractHelper.computeCreate2Address method, which follows the address calculation logic specific to ZKsync:

import {L2ContractHelper} from "era-contracts/l2-contracts/contracts/L2ContractHelper.sol";

function computeAddress(
    address sender,
    bytes32 salt, 
    bytes32 bytecodeHash, 
    bytes32 constructorInputHash
) external view returns (address addr) {

    address computedAddress = L2ContractHelper.computeCreate2Address(
        sender,
        salt,
        bytecodeHash,
        constructorInputHash
    );
}

Here’s the breakdown of the parameters and logic used in ZKsync’s CREATE2 address calculation:

  1. Sender: This refers to the address of the contract (typically the factory contract) calling the create2 function.
  2. Salt: The salt is used to differentiate deployments and ensure unique contract addresses, just like in traditional CREATE2 usage.
  3. Bytecode Hash: In ZKsync, you must pass the hash of the contract bytecode. This hash must be known to the operator, as the actual bytecode is provided in the factory_deps field of the transaction. For more info on this refer to the docs here.
  4. Constructor Input Hash: ZKsync requires the constructor input (or initialization) data to be hashed using keccak256. This hash is then included in the address derivation formula.

The ZKsync-specific address derivation formula differs slightly from Ethereum’s traditional CREATE2:

bytes32 hash = keccak256(
    bytes.concat(
        CREATE2_PREFIX,               // zkSync-specific prefix
        bytes32(uint256(uint160(_sender))),  // Address of the contract deployer
        _salt,                         // Salt for the deployment
        _bytecodeHash,                 // Hash of the bytecode
        constructorInputHash           // Hash of the constructor input data
    )
);

ℹ️ Note

The prefix (CREATE2_PREFIX) is specific to ZKsync, helping avoid collisions with Ethereum’s CREATE2 opcode. The keccak256 function is used to compute the hash from these components, and the address is derived from this hash.

Finally, we will return the calculated address, ensuring it conforms to the ZKsync address derivation rules:

return address(uint160(uint256(hash)));

Formula Recap

The formula that ZKsync uses to calculate the contract address is:

keccak256(zksyncCreate2 ++ address ++ salt ++ keccak256(bytecode) ++ keccak256(constructorInput))[12:]
  • zksyncCreate2 is a ZKsync-specific prefix to avoid collisions.
  • address is the contract deployer’s address.
  • salt is the deployment salt.
  • keccak256(bytecode) is the hash of the contract bytecode.
  • keccak256(constructorInput) is the hash of the constructor data.

These values are concatenated and passed through keccak256 to produce a 32-byte hash, and the last 20 bytes are used as the deployed contract’s address.

ℹ️ Note

You can check out the complete code for this implementation here.

Testing our factory

Create a file named Create2ZK.t.sol inside the test directory. Initialize a contract named Create2ZKTest like this:

// SPDX-License-Identifier: UNLICENSED
pragma solidity ^0.8.20;

import {Test} from "forge-std/Test.sol";
import {Counter} from "../src/Counter.sol";
import {ZKCreate2} from "../src/Create2zk.sol";
import {ACCOUNT_CODE_STORAGE_SYSTEM_CONTRACT} from "era-contracts/system-contracts/contracts/Constants.sol";

contract Create2ZKTest is Test {

}

Initialize the following state variables and the setUp() function:

    Create2ZK internal create2ZK;
    Counter internal counter;

    function setUp() public {
        create2ZK = new Create2ZK();
        counter = new Counter();
    }

Deterministic Deployment Test

We’ll now create a function named testDeterministicDeployment() to do the following:

  1. Deploy a new instance of the ZKCreate2 contract.
  2. Allocate 100 ETH to the deployer address, using the vm.deal cheat code, and impersonate this address with the prank cheat code.
  3. Set up the salt and bytecodeHash parameters.
  4. Use the zkCreate2 contract to deploy the Counter contract at a deterministic address using the create2 system contract.
  5. Assert that the computed address is equal to the deployed address.
    function testDeterministicDeployment() public {
        address deployerAddress = address(create2ZK);
        
        // Deal 100 ETH to the deployer address
        vm.deal(deployerAddress, 100 ether);
        vm.startPrank(deployerAddress);

        // Set up salt and retrieve bytecode hash
        bytes32 salt = "12345";
        bytes32 bytecodeHash = ACCOUNT_CODE_STORAGE_SYSTEM_CONTRACT.getRawCodeHash(address(counter));

        // Compute the expected address using ZKsync's specific `CREATE2` logic
        address expectedAddress = zkCreate2.computeCreate2Address(
            deployerAddress,
            salt,
            bytecodeHash,
            keccak256(abi.encode()) // constructor input data hash
        );

        // Deploy the contract using the `ZKCreate2` contract
        address deployedAddress = create2ZK.deploy(
            salt,
            bytecodeHash,
            abi.encode() // constructor input data
        );

        vm.stopPrank();

        // Log the computed and deployed addresses for debugging
        console.log("Computed address:", expectedAddress);
        console.log("Deployed address:", deployedAddress);

        // Assert that the computed address matches the deployed address
        assertEq(deployedAddress, expectedAddress);
    }

Explanation

  • vm.deal: This cheat code allocates 100 ETH to the deployer address, allowing it to fund contract deployments.
  • vm.startPrank: This makes the deployer address impersonate the caller for all subsequent calls, so we simulate real-world deployment scenarios.
  • bytes32 salt: The salt is used to ensure the deployed contract has a deterministic address.
  • bytes32 bytecodeHash: We retrieve the bytecode hash of the Counter contract from the ACCOUNT_CODE_STORAGE_SYSTEM_CONTRACT to pass it to the ZKsync CREATE2 function.
  • abi.encode(): We use this to pass constructor input data, hashed using keccak256.
  • computeCreate2Address: This function computes the expected address based on ZKsync’s deterministic address calculation for CREATE2.
  • deploy: This deploys the contract using ZKsync’s ContractDeployer system contract.

Finally, we assert that the expected address matches the deployed address, ensuring that the contract was deployed deterministically.

Save all your files, and run the test using forge test --match-path test/Create2ZK.t.sol --zksync --enable-eravm-extensions -vvvv. Your test should pass without any errors.