Getting "insufficient funds" error although it seems like I have funds.

[benams]

I'm trying to replay this transaction using my code:

const transaction = {
    from: '0x5b5a922e065a425ee7e9b70185ba563ef270afcd',
    to: '0xa5025faba6e70b84f74e9b1113e5f7f4e7f4859f',
    value: '0x' + (90000000000000000).toString(16), // value in wei
    data: '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',
    gasPrice: '0x' + (12208148709).toString(16),
    gas: '0x' + (793721).toString(16),
    nonce: '0x' + (1974).toString(16)
}

const provider = ganache.provider({
    fork: { network: "mainnet", blockNumber: 16245181 },
    wallet: {
        unlockedAccounts: [
              "0x5b5a922e065a425ee7e9b70185ba563ef270afcd"
        ]
    },
    chain: {
        chainId: 1
    }
});

let rawTransaction = typeof transaction === 'string' ? transaction : await provider.request({
    method: 'eth_signTransaction',
    params: [transaction]
});
let transactionHash: string = '';
try {
    transactionHash = await provider.request({
        method: "eth_sendRawTransaction",
        params: [rawTransaction]
    });
} catch (err) {
    console.error(`[ERROR] Could not execute the transaction: ${err.message}`)
}

I always get the error: "[ERROR] Could not execute the transaction: insufficient funds for gas * price + value", although it looks like this account have a balance of 99151525241130818179, while gas * price + value = 99689864001456200

[MicaiahReid]

Hi @benams. Good question!

This is expected behavior. When you start Ganache with the wallet.unlockedAccounts option, Ganache is "unlocking" the account by creating a fake private key for the account. This works for most cases, but it does not work for eth_signTransaction. We should probably throw or notify the user of this case, so I've created #4170 to track that.

When you use eth_sendRawTransaction, the signature portion of the signed transaction data is used to compute the from address of the transaction. Because a fake private key was used to sign the transaction, the resultant from address is not the actual address that you sent the transaction with, it's whatever address is associated with that fake private key. So, when the balance is being fetched to verify sufficient funds, it's retrieving a different address' balance.

As a workaround you can:

1. Use eth_sendTransaction directly, rather than signing and sending the raw transaction. This will work with unlocked accounts.
2. Use the --wallet.accounts startup option, which allows you to specify a private key and balance for the account. This only works if you actually know the private key for the account, and I still wouldn't recommend it for any account that you ever plan to use or fund, because Ganache is not a wallet for managing keys and you shouldn't go pasting real private keys in development environment if you can avoid it.
3. I'm not sure of the exact way that it could be used for your use case, but it could be helpful to use Truffle Dashboard, which allows you to use your wallet to manage transactions that are sent through a development environment.