Exploring ethereumjs-testrpc

ethereumjs-testrpc is a Node.js-based Ethereum node used for testing and development. It simulates full-node behavior and makes the development of Ethereum applications much faster. It also includes all popular RPC functions and features (such as events) and can be run deterministically to make development a breeze.

It's written in JavaScript and is distributed as an npm package. At the time of writing this, the latest version of ethereumjs-testrpc is 3.0.3 and requires at least Node.js version 6.9.1 to run properly.

Note

It holds everything in memory; therefore, whenever the node is restarted, it loses the previous state.

Installation and usage

There are three ways to simulate an Ethereum node using ethereumjs-testrpc. Each of these ways has its own use cases. Let's explore them.

The testrpc command-line application

The testrpc command can be used to simulate an Ethereum node. To install this command-line app, you need to install ethereumjs-testrpc globally:

npm install...