Tezos Forging & Unforging

Netezos supports functions to convert Tezos operations and their associated data into binary form for injection into the Tezos blockchain—a process known as forging. The reverse is also possible; converting binary forms of injected operations into native types—a process known as unforging.

Forging

Forge an operation

Forging an operation requires a block hash, an operation type, and any necessary operation parameters. Let's forge a transaction operation to transfer funds between two accounts.

var localForge = new LocalForge();

var blockHash = "BLghtuUq4Q578fA4STBWcSnVSBAtP1yQjtgLdejqAzzvtyrZanJ";

var operation = new TransactionContent
{
    Source = "tz1NXjqkurAmpKJEF76T58oyNsy3hWK7mk8e",
    Destination = "KT1SkmB19o8nfhRvG9LL7TjDfX2Bm1nCuYoY",
    Fee = 22100,
    Counter = 377727,
    GasLimit = 218465,
    StorageLimit = 668,
    Amount = 1
};

var forgedBytes = await localForge.ForgeOperationAsync(blockHash, operationArgs);

The variable forgedBytes will now contain the block hash, operation, and all of its parameters in binary form.

Forge an operation group

It is also possible to forge a group of operations together as a batch. Here is an example of a reveal operation followed by transaction operation.

var localForge = new LocalForge();

var blockHash = "BLCFdxw2kWJfCk9TWQsYxrQd9CcPPs2YdbArbDDgL4GZTYvTfZN";

var operations = new ManagerOperationContent[]
{
    new RevealContent
    {
        Source = "tz1f2MeahW6XMLcfHJSU5VH8USC4EuFiwdhx",
        Fee = 1257,
        Counter = 5,
        GasLimit = 10000,
        StorageLimit = 0,
        PublicKey = "edpkuEmaQSYKgDj5k9wfE3bTxjfjoG9k5YvRmYZsGf2bjEymZKkzNn"
    },
    new TransactionContent
    {
        Source = "tz1f2MeahW6XMLcfHJSU5VH8USC4EuFiwdhx",
        Destination = "tz1f2MeahW6XMLcfHJSU5VH8USC4EuFiwdhx",
        Fee = 1188,
        Counter = 6,
        GasLimit = 10307,
        StorageLimit = 0,
        Amount = 1
    }
};

var forgedBytes = await localForge.ForgeOperationGroupAsync(blockHash, operations);

Likewise, the variable forgedBytes will now contain the block hash, batched operations, and all operation parameters in binary form.

Unforging

Following from the previous example of forging an operation or operations, we can also unforge the forged bytes from their binary form to native types.

Unforge single or multiple operation(s)

var localForge = new LocalForge();

var unforgedOperation = await localForge.UnforgeOperationAsync(forgedBytes);

var blockHash = unforgedOperations.Item1; // string

var operations = unforgedOperations.Item2; // IEnumerable<OperationContent>

Since the number of operations from forged bytes cannot be known until the unforge process actually occurs, the return type of UnforgeOperationAsync is a tuple type of (string, IEnumerable<OperationContent>). The string (unforgedOperations.Item1) is the block hash, and the IEnumerable<OperationContent> (unforgedOperations.Item2) is an enumerable of operations that may contain 1 or more operations based on the number of forged operations.

Operation types

Following is a chart of Tezos operations and their operation native type counterparts.

Operation	Type
activate_account	ActivationContent
ballot	BallotContent
delegation	DelegationContent
double_baking_evidence	DoubleBakingContent
double_endorsement_evidence	DoubleEndorsementContent
endorsement	EndorsementContent
origination	OriginationContent
proposals	ProposalsContent
register_global_constant	RegisterConstantContent
reveal	RevealContent
seed_nonce_revelation	SeedNonceRevelationContent
transaction	TransactionContent