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Essential-eth for Chrome Extensions

The Problem: Size Kills Extensions

Every kilobyte matters in a Chrome extension. Manifest V3 service workers are limited to 60MB unpacked, but real talk: bloated dependencies mean slower load times, higher rejection risk, and angry users. If you're bundling an Ethereum library into a service worker, you're paying for size with startup latency and user experience.

The ethers.js and viem libraries bring powerful abstractions, but they're designed for web apps with generous budgets. Extensions? They're the opposite.

The Numbers: 39.9 kB vs The Rest

Library Bundle Size Gzip Over essential-eth
essential-eth 39.9 kB 12.1 kB —
ethers.js 394 kB 104 kB 10x larger
viem 348 kB 89 kB 8.7x larger
web3.js 506 kB 131 kB 12.7x larger

When your service worker loads in 50ms instead of 500ms, that's not a nice-to-have. That's a feature. Your extension stays responsive, snappy, and doesn't trigger Manifest V3 timeout warnings.

Quick Start: Add Signing to Your Extension

import { formatAddress, signMessage } from 'essential-eth';

chrome.runtime.onMessage.addListener((request, sender, sendResponse) => {
  if (request.action === 'signMessage') {
    const signature = signMessage(request.message, request.privateKey);
    sendResponse({ signature });
  }
});

Migrating from ethers.js

Before (ethers.js):

import { ethers } from 'ethers';
const signer = new ethers.Wallet(privateKey);
const sig = await signer.signMessage(message);

After (essential-eth):

import { signMessage } from 'essential-eth';
const sig = signMessage(message, privateKey);

No async wrapper, no overhead. Just the cryptography you need.

Migrating from viem

Before (viem):

import { createWalletClient, http } from 'viem';
import { privateKeyToAccount } from 'viem/accounts';
import { mainnet } from 'viem/chains';

const account = privateKeyToAccount(privateKey);
const client = createWalletClient({
  account,
  chain: mainnet,
  transport: http(),
});
const sig = await client.signMessage({ message });

After (essential-eth):

import { signMessage } from 'essential-eth';
const sig = signMessage(message, privateKey);

viem's modular architecture is great for web apps, but in a service worker you're paying for chain configs, transports, and client abstractions you'll never use. essential-eth gives you the crypto primitives directly — no setup, no async, no 348 kB penalty.

Migration Checklist

  • ✅ Replace ethers.Wallet / privateKeyToAccount with signMessage(), signTransaction()
  • ✅ Replace ethers.getAddress() / getAddress() (viem) with formatAddress()
  • ✅ Replace ethers.id() / keccak256(toHex()) (viem) with hashMessage()
  • ✅ Keep the same private key format — everything works with hex strings
  • ✅ Test your service worker reload time with DevTools

Ready to Ship?

npm install essential-eth

Then star the project and show your extension users you care about performance:

⭐ github.com/dawsbot/essential-eth