Ethereum Wallet and Dev Tools for Developers - Rivet

Authors: Georgios Konstantopoulos, Achal Srinivasan, Tom Meagher, Jake Moxey; Source: paradigm; Compilers: Kate, Marsbit

We are excited to announce the alpha release of Rivet, a free, open-source developer wallet and tool for EVM-based chains. We built Rivet to improve the front-end development experience and unlock new areas of productivity for developers. Below is more information.

! [Rivet] (https://img-cdn.gateio.im/resized-social/moments-40baef27dd-f1c577f559-dd1a6f-1c6801)

****What is Rivet? ****

Rivet is an Ethereum wallet and developer tool for developers - a browser extension that enables developers to inspect, debug, modify and manipulate the state of a local Ethereum node. It centers on the common workflows of front-end Ethereum development, is compatible with any Ethereum dApp, and has many advanced features out of the box. Rivet is licensed under the MIT license, free for anyone to contribute, use or fork. We're excited for the community to build Rivet with us, so feel free to reach out if you're interested in contributing!

Rivet is a browser extension that allows users to connect to any Ethereum application and have all the functionality expected from a wallet, i.e. manage multiple addresses, sign and submit transactions or messages, and view your transaction history.

Why build a developer wallet?

We created Rivet for two core reasons:

Developing against native ethereum nodes is a pain for consumer wallets because they simply weren't designed for it. Constant state changes (and restarts) on the local ethereum node can cause these wallets to become out of sync and generally have poor reactivity (e.g. on some consumer wallets you have to delete and re-add your account to reset the nonce, since most wallets do not respond to nonce resets)

Other developers debug against testnets and even worse, mainnet. Developing for a testnet works because you can easily fund yourself through a faucet and test transaction flow easily; however, that comes with the tradeoff of not being able to replicate the network conditions and state of mainnet. Developing for mainnet is fine, just as you can develop for real-time network conditions and status; however, the obvious tradeoff is that you're spending real money in fees. Neither approach is ideal for debugging and testing end-to-end processes.

By building a developer-first wallet, we can encourage developers to follow best practices for introspection, testing, and debugging on local (forked) Ethereum nodes. Rivet is an enabler that works end-to-end with local nodes, leveraging features not accessible to ordinary consumer wallets.

! [Rivet] (https://img-cdn.gateio.im/resized-social/moments-40baef27dd-606165b270-dd1a6f-1c6801)

****What's so special about Rivet? ****

What makes Rivet special is its tight integration with Foundry's Anvil. This allows for deep testing, debugging and modification within the dApp. Rivet is "Ethereum DevTools", which is analogous to "React DevTools" or "Developer Tools for Browsers (⌘I)".

Here are some differences between Rivet and other wallets:

Instead of a small popup, there's plenty of space on the side of the browser to display rich information about the state of Ethereum.

Automatic node syncing and automatic adjustment of nonces/accounts depending on the network you are connected to (no more resetting nonces every time the network changes!)

Forking the mainnet, allowing "sandboxed" interactions on the live network, is especially useful when testing the integration of dApps with live applications.

Configurable block production intervals, click mining and overlay block fees.

Account impersonation allows you to browse and interact with any dApp from any address!

Account Override allows you to edit the nonce or balance of any account. Storage Slot overriding is coming soon!

List all blocks, drill down into transactions, view pending transactions in mempool between blocks/while block mining is paused - almost like a mini block explorer.

! [Rivet] (https://img-cdn.gateio.im/resized-social/moments-40baef27dd-98ed76b066-dd1a6f-1c6801)

****What's next for Rivet? ****

Rivet is still in early development and we are looking for contributors in the implementation and creative space. If you're a front-end developer and excited about building this functionality with us, please get in touch.

What gets us excited is:

1. Improve UI/UX using Rivet

2. Time travel is used to cancel one or more operations (not reset!)

3. Read and write token (ERC20/721, etc.) balance, or other storage slots

4. ABI decoded calldata, logs, state changes and traces

5. Tighter integration with Forge build artifacts

6. Keyboard Shortcuts