Support for trace_call and State Overrides in Filecoin RPC #13403
Description
Checklist
- This is not brainstorming ideas. If you have an idea you'd like to discuss, please open a new discussion on the lotus forum and select the category as
Ideas. - I have a specific, actionable, and well motivated feature request to propose.
Lotus component
- lotus daemon - chain sync
- lotus fvm/fevm - Lotus FVM and FEVM interactions
- lotus miner/worker - sealing
- lotus miner - proving(WindowPoSt/WinningPoSt)
- lotus JSON-RPC API
- lotus message management (mpool)
- Other
What is the motivation behind this feature request? Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Use Case
trace_call is used extensively by EVM developers to simulate transaction routes before execution, allowing them to preview how a transaction would behave under specific on-chain conditions without broadcasting it.
In combination with state overrides, this enables them to:
- Emulate token approvals and other prerequisite contract states
- Test different contract interactions safely and deterministically
Additionally, they may rely on trace_call (alongside eth_getLogs and eth_getTransactionReceipt) to verify and analyze transactions that have already occurred.
Benefits
- Enables robust off-chain transaction simulation and debugging
- Improves developer tooling for dApp and DeFi integrations
- Aligns Filecoin’s RPC feature set more closely with Ethereum-compatible environments with improved safety and debugging
References
Current Ecosystem Users Impacted
- EVM devs debugging contract interactions (e.g. a DEX provider in the ecosystem)
- "we use trace call in order to simulate routes before they are sent"
- "importantly we use it together with state overrides to simulate approvals"
- "we also use it to confirm swaps that have already happened, combined with getlogs and transactionreceipt"
Describe the solution you'd like
This is a request for support of the trace_call RPC method as well as state overrides, similar to the functionality available in Ethereum clients (e.g. Geth).
Describe alternatives you've considered
No response
Additional context
No response