Ethereum DApps: Cross-contract Communication & Token Selling

Original Source: https://www.sitepoint.com/building-ethereum-dapps-cross-contract-communication-token-selling/

In part 4 of this tutorial series on building DApps with Ethereum, we started building and testing our DAO contract. Now let’s go one step further and handle adding content and tokens to the story, as per our introduction.

Adding Tokens

For a contract to be able to interact with another contract, it needs to be aware of that other contract’s interface — the functions available to it. Since our TNS token has a fairly straightforward interface, we can include it as such in the contract of our DAO, above the contract StoryDao declaration and under our import statements:

contract LockableToken is Ownable {
function totalSupply() public view returns (uint256);
function balanceOf(address who) public view returns (uint256);
function transfer(address to, uint256 value) public returns (bool);
event Transfer(address indexed from, address indexed to, uint256 value);
function allowance(address owner, address spender) public view returns (uint256);
function transferFrom(address from, address to, uint256 value) public returns (bool);
function approve(address spender, uint256 value) public returns (bool);
event Approval(address indexed owner, address indexed spender, uint256 value);
function approveAndCall(address _spender, uint256 _value, bytes _data) public payable returns (bool);
function transferAndCall(address _to, uint256 _value, bytes _data) public payable returns (bool);
function transferFromAndCall(address _from, address _to, uint256 _value, bytes _data) public payable returns (bool);

function increaseLockedAmount(address _owner, uint256 _amount) public returns (uint256);
function decreaseLockedAmount(address _owner, uint256 _amount) public returns (uint256);
function getLockedAmount(address _owner) view public returns (uint256);
function getUnlockedAmount(address _owner) view public returns (uint256);
}

Notice that we don’t need to paste in the “meat” of the functions, but only their signatures (skeletons). This is all that’s needed to interact between contracts.

Now we can use these functions in the DAO contract. The plan is as follows:

launch the token (we already did this)
launch the DAO from the same address
send all tokens from the token-launcher to the DAO, then transfer ownership over the contract to the DAO itself
at this point the DAO owns all tokens and can sell them to people using the transfer function, or can reserve them for spending using the approve function (useful during votes), etc.

But how does the DAO know which address the token is deployed on? We tell it.

First, we add a new variable at the top of the DAO contract:

LockableToken public token;

Then, we add some functions:

constructor(address _token) public {
require(_token != address(0), “Token address cannot be null-address”);
token = LockableToken(_token);
}

The constructor is the function which gets called automatically when a contract is deployed. It’s useful for initializing values like linked contracts, default values, etc. In our case, we’ll use it to consume and save the address of the TNS token. The require check is there to make sure the token’s address is valid.

While we’re at it, let’s add a function that lets users check how many tokens remain for sale in the DAO, and the ability to change to another token should something go wrong and such a change be required. This change deserves an event, too, so let’s add that in as well.

event TokenAddressChange(address token);

function daoTokenBalance() public view returns (uint256) {
return token.balanceOf(address(this));
}

function changeTokenAddress(address _token) onlyOwner public {
require(_token != address(0), “Token address cannot be null-address”);
token = LockableToken(_token);
emit TokenAddressChange(_token);
}

The first function is set to view because it doesn’t change the state of the blockchain; it doesn’t alter any values. This means it’s a free, read-only function call to the blockchain: it doesn’t need a paid transaction. It also returns the balance of tokens as a number, so this needs to be declared on the function’s signature with returns (uint256). The token has a balanceOf function (see the interface we pasted in above) and it accepts one parameter — the address whose balance to check. We’re checking our (this) DAO’s balance, so “this”, and we turn “this” into an address with address().

The token address changing function allows the owner (admin) to change the token contract. It’s identical to the logic of the constructor.

Let’s see how we can let people buy the tokens now.

Buying Tokens

As per the previous part of the series, users can buy tokens by:

Using the fallback function if already whitelisted. In other words, just sending ether to the DAO contract.
Using the whitelistAddress function by sending more than the fee required for whitelisting.
Calling the buyTokens function directly.

There is a caveat, however. When someone calls the buyTokens function from the outside, we want it to fail if there aren’t enough tokens in the DAO to sell. But when someone buys tokens via the whitelist function by sending in too much in the first whitelisting attempt, we don’t want it to fail, because then the whitelisting process will get canceled as everything fails at once. Transactions in Ethereum are atomic: either everything has to succeed, or nothing. So we’ll make two buyTokens functions.

// This goes at the top of the contract with other properties
uint256 public tokenToWeiRatio = 10000;

function buyTokensThrow(address _buyer, uint256 _wei) external {

require(whitelist[_buyer], “Candidate must be whitelisted.”);
require(!blacklist[_buyer], “Candidate must not be blacklisted.”);

uint256 tokens = _wei * tokenToWeiRatio;
require(daoTokenBalance() >= tokens, “DAO must have enough tokens for sale”);
token.transfer(_buyer, tokens);
}

function buyTokensInternal(address _buyer, uint256 _wei) internal {
require(!blacklist[_buyer], “Candidate must not be blacklisted.”);
uint256 tokens = _wei * tokenToWeiRatio;
if (daoTokenBalance() < tokens) {
msg.sender.transfer(_wei);
} else {
token.transfer(_buyer, tokens);
}
}

So, 100 million TNS tokens exist. If we set a price of 10000 tokens per one ether, that comes down to around 4–5 cents per token, which is acceptable.

The functions do some calculations after doing sanity checks against banned users and other factors, and immediately send the tokens out to the buyer, who can start using them as they see fit — either for voting, or for selling on exchanges. If there’s fewer tokens in the DAO than the buyer is trying to buy, the buyer is refunded.

The part token.transfer(_buyer, tokens) is us using the TNS token contract to initiate a transfer from the current location (the DAO) to the destination _buyer for amount tokens.

Now that we know people can get their hands on the tokens, let’s see if we can implement submissions.

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