Writing the contract

For most CorDapps, you will want to impose some constraints on how their states evolve over time:

  • For a cash CorDapp, you would not want to allow users to create transactions that generate money out of thin air (at least without the involvement of a central bank or commercial bank).
  • For a loan CorDapp, you would want to allow the creation of loans with a negative value.
  • For an asset-trading CorDapp, you would not want to allow users to finalise a trade without the agreement of their counterparty.

In Corda, contracts are the mechanism used to impose constraints on how states can evolve.

Every state has an associated contract. A transaction is invalid if it does not satisfy the contract of every input and output state in the transaction.

The Contract interface

Just as every Corda state must implement the ContractState interface, every contract must implement the Contract interface:

interface Contract {
    // Implements the contract constraints in code.
    @Throws(IllegalArgumentException::class)
    fun verify(tx: LedgerTransaction)
}

From the above example, you can see that Contract expresses its constraints through a verify function that takes a transaction as input, and:

  • Throws an IllegalArgumentException if it rejects the transaction proposal.
  • Returns silently if it accepts the transaction proposal.

Controlling IOU evolution

What would a good contract for an IOUState look like? There is no right or wrong answer - it depends on how you want your CorDapp to behave.

For the purposes of this tutorial, let’s say that you want to impose the constraint that you only want to allow the creation of IOUs. You don’t want nodes to transfer them or redeem them for cash. One way to enforce this behaviour would be by imposing the following constraints:

  • A transaction involving IOUs must consume zero inputs, and create one output of type IOUState.
  • The transaction should also include a Create command, indicating the transaction’s intent (more on commands shortly).

You might also want to impose some constraints on the properties of the issued IOUState:

  • Its value must be non-negative.
  • The lender and the borrower cannot be the same entity.

And finally, you’ll want to impose constraints on who is required to sign the transaction:

  • The IOU’s lender must sign.
  • The IOU’s borrower must sign.

You can visualise this transaction as follows:

simple tutorial transaction 2

Defining the IOUContract

To write a contract that enforces these constraints, you’ll need to modify either TemplateContract.java or TemplateContract.kt by defining an IOUContract, as shown in the following code example:

// Add this import:
import net.corda.core.contracts.*
import com.template.states.IOUState

class IOUContract : Contract {
    companion object {
        const val ID = "com.template.contracts.IOUContract"
    }

    // Our Create command.
    class Create : CommandData

    override fun verify(tx: LedgerTransaction) {
        val command = tx.commands.requireSingleCommand<Create>()

        requireThat {
            // Constraints on the shape of the transaction.
            "No inputs should be consumed when issuing an IOU." using (tx.inputs.isEmpty())
            "There should be one output state of type IOUState." using (tx.outputs.size == 1)

            // IOU-specific constraints.
            val output = tx.outputsOfType<IOUState>().single()
            "The IOU's value must be non-negative." using (output.value > 0)
            "The lender and the borrower cannot be the same entity." using (output.lender != output.borrower)

            // Constraints on the signers.
            val expectedSigners = listOf(output.borrower.owningKey, output.lender.owningKey)
            "There must be two signers." using (command.signers.toSet().size == 2)
            "The borrower and lender must be signers." using (command.signers.containsAll(expectedSigners))
        }
    }
}


// Add these imports:
import net.corda.core.contracts.CommandWithParties;
import net.corda.core.identity.Party;

import java.security.PublicKey;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;

import static net.corda.core.contracts.ContractsDSL.requireSingleCommand;

// Replace TemplateContract's definition with:
public class IOUContract implements Contract {
    public static final String ID = "com.template.contracts.IOUContract";

    // Our Create command.
    public static class Create implements CommandData {
    }

    @Override
    public void verify(LedgerTransaction tx) {
        final CommandWithParties<IOUContract.Create> command = requireSingleCommand(tx.getCommands(), IOUContract.Create.class);

        // Constraints on the shape of the transaction.
        if (!tx.getInputs().isEmpty())
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("No inputs should be consumed when issuing an IOU.");
        if (!(tx.getOutputs().size() == 1))
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("There should be one output state of type IOUState.");

        // IOU-specific constraints.
        final IOUState output = tx.outputsOfType(IOUState.class).get(0);
        final Party lender = output.getLender();
        final Party borrower = output.getBorrower();
        if (output.getValue() <= 0)
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("The IOU's value must be non-negative.");
        if (lender.equals(borrower))
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("The lender and the borrower cannot be the same entity.");

        // Constraints on the signers.
        final List<PublicKey> requiredSigners = command.getSigners();
        final List<PublicKey> expectedSigners = Arrays.asList(borrower.getOwningKey(), lender.getOwningKey());
        if (requiredSigners.size() != 2)
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("There must be two signers.");
        if (!(requiredSigners.containsAll(expectedSigners)))
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("The borrower and lender must be signers.");

    }
}

Let’s walk through this code step by step.

The Create command

The first thing you’ll add to your contract is a command.

Commands serve two functions:

  • They indicate the transaction’s intent, allowing different verification to be performed for different types of transactions. For example, a transaction proposing the creation of an IOU could have to meet different constraints to one redeeming an IOU.
  • They allow you to define the required signers for the transaction. For example, IOU creation might require signatures from the lender only, whereas the transfer of an IOU might require signatures from both the IOU’s borrower and lender.

Our contract has one command, a Create command. All commands must implement the CommandData interface.

The CommandData interface is a simple marker interface for commands. In fact, its declaration is only two words long (Kotlin interfaces do not require a body):

interface CommandData

About the verify logic

Your contract also needs to define the actual contract constraints by implementing verify. Your goal in writing the verify function is to write a function that, given a transaction:

  • Throws an IllegalArgumentException if the transaction is considered invalid.
  • Does not throw an exception if the transaction is considered valid.

In deciding whether the transaction is valid, the verify function only has access to the contents of the transaction:

  • tx.inputs, which lists the inputs.
  • tx.outputs, which lists the outputs.
  • tx.commands, which lists the commands and their associated signers.

The verify function also has access to the transaction’s attachments and time-window, which you won’t be using in this tutorial.

Based on the constraints enumerated above, you need to write a verify function that rejects a transaction if any of the following are true:

  • The transaction doesn’t include a Create command.
  • The transaction has inputs.
  • The transaction doesn’t have exactly one output.
  • The IOU itself is invalid.
  • The transaction doesn’t require the lender’s signature.

Command constraints

Firstly, you will define any constraints around the transaction’s commands.

Use Corda’s requireSingleCommand function to test for the presence of a single Create command.

If the Create command isn’t present, or if the transaction has multiple Create commands, an exception will be thrown and contract verification will fail.

Transaction constraints

Secondly, you will define any constraints on the transaction. For example, an issuance transaction would require that the transaction can have no inputs and only a single output.

In Kotlin, you use Corda’s built-in requireThat blockthese to impose these and the subsequent constraints. requireThat provides a terse way to write the following:

  • If the condition on the right-hand side doesn’t evaluate to true…
  • …throw an IllegalArgumentException with the message on the left-hand side

As before, the act of throwing this exception causes the transaction to be considered invalid.

In Java, you simply throw an IllegalArgumentException manually instead.

IOU constraints

Thirdly, you need to impose two constraints on the IOUState itself:

  1. The value of the IOUState must be non-negative.
  2. The lender and the borrower cannot be the same entity.

You can see that you are not restricted to only writing constraints inside the verify function. You can also write other statements - in this case, extracting the transaction’s single IOUState and assigning it to a variable.

Signer constraints

Finally, you need to require both the lender and the borrower to be required signers on the transaction. A transaction’s required signers is equal to the union of all the signers listed on the commands. You will therefore extract the signers from the Create command you retrieved earlier.

This is an absolutely essential constraint - it ensures that no IOUState can ever be created on the blockchain without the express agreement of both the lender and borrower nodes.

Progress so far

You’ve now written an IOUContract constraining the evolution of each IOUState over time:

  • An IOUState can only be created, not transferred or redeemed.
  • Creating an IOUState requires an issuance transaction with no inputs, a single IOUState output, and a Create command.
  • The IOUState created by the issuance transaction must have a non-negative value, and the lender and borrower must be different entities.

Next, you’ll update the IOUFlow so that it obeys these contract constraints when issuing an IOUState onto the ledger. To do this, proceed to Updating the flow.

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