micro-eth-signer issue when deploying local accounts

v-next/hardhat-errors/src/descriptors.ts

@@ -135,7 +135,7 @@ Please double check whether you have multiple versions of the same plugin instal
     ENV_VAR_NOT_FOUND: {
       number: 7,
       messageTemplate: `Configuration Variable '{name}' not found.
-     
+
 You can define it using a plugin like hardhat-keystore, or set it as an environment variable.`,
       websiteTitle: "Configuration variable not found",
       websiteDescription: `A configuration variable was expected to be set as an environment variable, but it wasn't.`,
@@ -678,6 +678,13 @@ Try using another mnemonic or deriving less keys.`,
       websiteTitle: "Invalid network type",
       websiteDescription: `The network manager only supports the network types 'http' and 'edr'.`,
     },
+    DATA_FIELD_CANNOT_BE_NULL_WITH_NULL_ADDRESS: {
+      number: 721,
+      messageTemplate: `The "to" field is undefined, and the "data" field is also undefined; however, a transaction to the null address cannot have an undefined "data" field.`,
+      websiteTitle: "Transaction to null address cannot have undefined data",
+      websiteDescription:
+        "The transaction to the null address cannot have undefined data",
+    },
   },
   KEYSTORE: {
     INVALID_KEYSTORE_FILE_FORMAT: {

v-next/hardhat/package.json

@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@
     "debug": "^4.1.1",
     "enquirer": "^2.3.0",
     "ethereum-cryptography": "^2.2.1",
-    "micro-eth-signer": "^0.12.0",
+    "micro-eth-signer": "^0.13.0",
     "p-map": "^7.0.2",
     "semver": "^7.6.3",
     "solc": "^0.8.27",

v-next/hardhat/src/internal/builtin-plugins/network-manager/request-handlers/handlers/accounts/local-accounts.ts

@@ -276,15 +276,22 @@ export class LocalAccountsHandler extends ChainId implements RequestHandler {
       };
     });
 
-    // TODO: Fix after the alpha release
-    assertHardhatInvariant(
-      txData.to !== undefined,
-      "The alpha version doesn't support deploying contracts with local accounts yet",
-    );
+    if (txData.to === undefined && txData.data === undefined) {
+      throw new HardhatError(
+        HardhatError.ERRORS.NETWORK.DATA_FIELD_CANNOT_BE_NULL_WITH_NULL_ADDRESS,
+      );
+    }
 
-    const checksummedAddress = addr.addChecksum(
-      bytesToHexString(txData.to).toLowerCase(),
-    );
+    let checksummedAddress;
+    if (txData.to === undefined) {
+      // This scenario arises during contract deployment. The npm package "micro-eth-signer" does not support
+      // undefined addresses. Therefore, these values must be converted to "0x", the expected format.
+      checksummedAddress = "0x";
+    } else {
+      checksummedAddress = addr.addChecksum(
+        bytesToHexString(txData.to).toLowerCase(),
+      );
+    }
 
     assertHardhatInvariant(
       txData.nonce !== undefined,

v-next/hardhat/test/internal/builtin-plugins/network-manager/request-handlers/handlers/accounts/local-accounts.ts

@@ -451,6 +451,62 @@ describe("LocalAccountsHandler", () => {
   });
 
   describe("modifyRequest", () => {
+    describe("sending transactions to the null address", () => {
+      it("should succeed when the data field is not empty", async () => {
+        const tx = {
+          // null address: the "to" field is not required
+          from: "0xb5bc06d4548a3ac17d72b372ae1e416bf65b8ead",
+          gas: numberToHexString(30000),
+          nonce: numberToHexString(0),
+          value: numberToHexString(1),
+          chainId: numberToHexString(MOCK_PROVIDER_CHAIN_ID),
+          maxFeePerGas: numberToHexString(12),
+          maxPriorityFeePerGas: numberToHexString(2),
+          data: "0x01",
+        };
+
+        const jsonRpcRequest = getJsonRpcRequest(1, "eth_sendTransaction", [
+          tx,
+        ]);
+
+        await localAccountsHandler.handle(jsonRpcRequest);
+
+        assert.ok(
+          Array.isArray(jsonRpcRequest.params),
+          "params should be an array",
+        );
+
+        const rawTransaction = hexStringToBytes(jsonRpcRequest.params[0]);
+        // The tx type is encoded in the first byte, and it must be the EIP-1559 one
+        assert.equal(rawTransaction[0], 2);
+      });
+
+      it("should throw when the data field is undefined", async () => {
+        const tx = {
+          // null address: the "to" field is not required.
+          // Also, in this test scenario, the "data" field is omitted
+          from: "0xb5bc06d4548a3ac17d72b372ae1e416bf65b8ead",
+          gas: numberToHexString(30000),
+          nonce: numberToHexString(0),
+          value: numberToHexString(1),
+          chainId: numberToHexString(MOCK_PROVIDER_CHAIN_ID),
+          maxFeePerGas: numberToHexString(12),
+          maxPriorityFeePerGas: numberToHexString(2),
+        };
+
+        const jsonRpcRequest = getJsonRpcRequest(1, "eth_sendTransaction", [
+          tx,
+        ]);
+
+        assertRejectsWithHardhatError(
+          () => localAccountsHandler.handle(jsonRpcRequest),
+          HardhatError.ERRORS.NETWORK
+            .DATA_FIELD_CANNOT_BE_NULL_WITH_NULL_ADDRESS,
+          {},
+        );
+      });
+    });
+
     it("should, given two identical tx, return the same raw transaction", async () => {
       const jsonRpcRequest = getJsonRpcRequest(1, "eth_sendTransaction", [
         {