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A Quick Primer on ErgoScript#

The Ergo node does not understand ErgoScript. Instead, it uses a low-level language called ErgoTree, which is a "tree" based language (somewhat like XML).

However, writing code in ErgoTree is difficult.

  • ErgoTree is similar to Bitcoin's Script in some aspects.
  • An ErgoTree program is deterministic and consists of a sequence of boolean predicates joined using AND and OR.
  • Ergo nodes execute the ErgoTree program contained in a transaction and consider it valid if it evaluates to true.

An example of such an ErgoTree program would be 

AND(OR(condition_1, condition_2), condition_3)

which implies that the transaction is valid if condition_3 and at least one of condition_1 or condition_2 hold.

ErgoScript is a high-level developer-friendly language for writing smart contracts that are then compiled to ErgoTree before being written to the blockchain.

The equivalent of the above program in ErgoScript would be 

(condition_1 || condition_2) && condition_3

ErgoScript Examples#

Tip: For beginners, we highly recommend the ErgoScript P2S playground, which can be used to get the Ergo address corresponding to some arbitrary ErgoScript program. Please use the P2S playground only for experiments.