Show metamask popup even when the funds are insufficient.

[d4rkg]

Is it possible to still let the metamask browser extension popup appear when you dont have enough funds in your wallet?
Right now I get the following error in console:

"MetaMask - RPC Error: err: insufficient funds for gas * price + value" (which is correct).

When I use web3, the metamask popup still opens and the accept button is just greyed out.
How to accomplish this with ethers.js?

[zemse]

It can be possible that the error is due to estimateGas. To skip that call, can you pass in a gasLimit override and see if it works? If you need to estimateGas anyway, you can have a separate line before with gasPrice as 0, so that it doesn't give you an insufficient funds error.

[panoplied]

But is it still possible to get Metamask popup even if funds are insufficient? Or if there's a revert awaiting your transaction to happen. Is it possible to still get the popup instead of console errors?

[mongchanghsi]

Hi, I have been trying to work around this to get the Metamask popup despite insufficient funds.

From what I have tried, as long as the gasLimit has as value, the Metamask popup will show, but providing a fixed number doesn't seem to be practical in reality. So I tried to estimateGas.method to get the estimatedGas value. However, it will then throw the same error MetaMask - RPC Error: err: insufficient funds for gas * price + value. Does it mean that estimateGas itself uses some eth to calculate? Are there any other methods to get the Metamask popup?

[BowserKingKoopa]

I'm unable to get this to work. Does anyone have a code example of how to do a proper gas estimation and still get Metamask to pop up when the user has insufficient funds?

[zemse]

how to do a proper gas estimation

Example code:

const estimatedGas = await yourContract.estimateGas.methodName(arg1, arg2, {
    gasPrice: 0 // final extra argument is an optional overrides object, if your balance is zero, it might give you insufficient funds error.
})

still get Metamask to pop up when the user has insufficient funds?

Can you try if the following opens metamask?

await yourContract.methodName(arg1, arg2, { gasPrice: 0 })

[BowserKingKoopa]

I expected yourContract.estimateGas.methodName to return a gas estimate. Instead it throws an Exception complaining about insufficient funds just like actually calling the contract function does.

await yourContract.methodName(arg1, arg2, { gasPrice: 0 })
does not open Metamask for me. It just throws an insufficient funds Exception.

[BowserKingKoopa]

I still have not found a solution to this. Is this possible with ethers js? I'm thinking I might have to retreat back to web3.js because this behavior is utterly baffling to my users (when the amount needed isn't quite enough because of gas and my app says 'insufficient funds' they think my app is broken. If I could pop up metamask and let metamask explain the situation they'd believe metamask).

[mongchanghsi]

Working from @zemse answer, instead of using gasPrice, I estimated gas with gasLimit: 0 instead. What you can do is

    let estimatedGas = 200000;
    try {
      const estimatedGasFromContract = await contract.estimateGas.methodName(
        args1, { gasLimit: 0 });

      estimatedGas = estimatedGasFromContract.toNumber();
    } catch (error: any) {
      console.log('User got insufficient funds for mint');
      console.log(error);
    }

In a sense, can have a default estimateGas in a case where it is unable to get estimateGas. Thereafter, you can use the estimateGas value in your main function to call whatever method.
You can simply just set high default gas price, they will naturally simply just top up more in their wallet anyway. Could possibly prevent a situation where after they top up, the gas went up even more and they need to top up even more.

[bounds]

Will this work if the user has insufficient funds even before gas considerations? I would much prefer them see it in metamask (it's what they're used to) instead of my app communicating that "minting failed"

[mongchanghsi]

Yes, it will work, by setting gasLimit: 0 you are already bypassing the insufficient funds error and showing the metamask page. You can use this method directly in the function that you are calling the contract method. You can also simply create a new metamask account with 0 eth and try it out.