Precompiled Contracts

Introduction

On top of having a set of opcodes to choose from, the EVM also offers a set of more advanced functionalities through precompiled contracts. These are a special kind of contracts that are bundled with the EVM at fixed addresses, and can be called with a determined gas cost. The addresses start from 1, and increment for each contract. New hardforks may introduce new precompiled contracts. They are called from the opcodes like regular contracts, with instructions like CALL. The gas cost mentioned here is purely the cost of the contract, and does not consider the cost of the call itself nor the instructions to put the parameters in memory. The precompiled contracts are also available in the playground.

For all precompiled contracts, if the input is shorter than expected, it is assumed to be virtually padded with zeros at the end. If the input is longer than expected, surplus bytes at the end are ignored.

After the hardfork Berlin, all the precompiled contracts addresses are always considered warm. See section access sets.