🚀 Objective:

• Learn Hardhat, the Ethereum development framework that’s the industry standard for smart contract testing, deployment, and debugging.
• Set up a local Ethereum node for testing contracts and transactions.
• Integrate Ethers.js to interact with smart contracts programmatically.
• Write unit tests to ensure your contract works as expected.
• Deploy smart contracts to the Sepolia testnet using Hardhat.

🧠 What is Hardhat?

Hardhat is a development environment designed to help developers build Ethereum smart contracts. It is used for:

• Compiling smart contracts
• Deploying them to local and remote networks
• Testing smart contracts
• Debugging and interacting with contracts using JavaScript or TypeScript

🔑 Core Features of Hardhat:

1. Local Ethereum Network:
   • Hardhat runs a local Ethereum network for testing purposes that mimics the real Ethereum network.
   • You can deploy and test smart contracts here without needing to spend real ETH.
2. Solidity Compiler:
   • Hardhat has an integrated Solidity compiler that compiles your contracts automatically.
3. Testing with Mocha & Chai:
   • Hardhat integrates with Mocha (test framework) and Chai (assertion library) to help you write unit tests for your contracts.
4. Deployments & Scripts:
   • Hardhat supports deployment scripts that allow you to deploy contracts to Ethereum networks (e.g., Sepolia, Mainnet) using Ethers.js.

🏗️ Setting Up Your Hardhat Project