How to Use ChainWalker: A Smart Contract Scraper

Oct 10, 2024 | Blockchain

Welcome to your guide on ChainWalker! This powerful tool is designed for extracting information from smart contracts using RCPIPC calls. Whether you’re in academia, cybersecurity, web3.0 startups, or marketing, ChainWalker can offer unique insights and assistance. Let’s walk through its features, usage, and troubleshooting tips to help you make the most of this handy scraper.

What is ChainWalker?

ChainWalker is a smart contract scraper that can help you find contracts, extract the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) code, and even disassemble the opcodes. It’s a lightweight tool that operates without the need for third-party APIs and allows users to focus on specific blocks or contract balances.

Features of ChainWalker

  • Cross-platform compatibility
  • Concurrent and fast operations
  • No need for third-party API integrations
  • Downloads and disassembles contract EVM code

Use Cases

ChainWalker is versatile and serves various fields:

  • Academia: Ideal for machine learning, data science, and sampling contracts.
  • Cybersecurity: Beneficial for audit companies and threat intelligence researchers.
  • Web3.0 Startups: Perfect for building next-generation dApps and blockchain-specific APIs.
  • Marketing: Provides unique insights to make informed predictions.

How to Use ChainWalker

Follow these steps to get started with ChainWalker:

  1. Download the appropriate artifact for your distribution from the release section.
  2. Execute the file and follow the usage guide. Make sure you have EVM installed if you plan to use the EVM downloader without the -p option.
  3. Use ChainWalker with various options. For example:
chainwalker -b  -c  -e  -o  -s  -u 

Demo: Extracting Contracts

Here are some examples showing how to use ChainWalker:

  • To extract contracts with a minimum balance of 3 ETH.
  • To extract contracts without specifying a minimum balance for a particular block.

Check out the output generated without using the -p option to see how organized it is!

Limitations

While ChainWalker is powerful, it does have its limitations:

  • It cannot directly grab internal contract transactions.

Development

If you want to dive into the coding aspect, you can clone the repository and build the code by using:

go build main.go

Troubleshooting Your ChainWalker Experience

If you encounter any issues while using ChainWalker, especially on remote servers, consider trying these troubleshooting steps:

  • Lower the concurrency number to 1.
  • Check if you’ve hit the API limits of your provider.
  • Change the node provider.
  • Adjust the block numbers.
  • Utilize a smaller block distance between the start and end blocks.
  • Ensure the output directory exists in the same directory as the binary.
  • For a better experience, consider running your own node and connecting to IPC using root.ethereum/geth.ipc as -u (url).

For more insights, updates, or to collaborate on AI development projects, stay connected with fxis.ai.

Conclusion

At fxis.ai, we believe that such advancements are crucial for the future of AI, as they enable more comprehensive and effective solutions. Our team is continually exploring new methodologies to push the envelope in artificial intelligence, ensuring that our clients benefit from the latest technological innovations.

By following these guidelines, you should be well on your way to leveraging the power of ChainWalker. Explore its features and unlock new potentials in your projects!

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