Architecture Overview
The relayer sits between Tezos X EVM dApps and the Michelson runtime, acting as a translation layer that maps EVM calls to Tezos operations.
Flow diagram
Components
| Component | Role |
|---|---|
| RelayerProvider | Implements EIP1193Provider, handles all window.ethereum calls |
| BeaconClient | Connects to Temple wallet via Beacon SDK |
| TezlinkClient | Sends operations to the Michelson runtime via Tezlink RPC |
| GatewayBuilder | Builds Micheline calldata for the NAC gateway |
| EIP-6963 announcer | Broadcasts provider info for modern dApp wallet pickers |
Address derivation
Every tz1 address has a deterministic EVM alias:
tz1 → SHA3(prefix + tz1_bytes) → 0xAlias
This alias is computed by the Tezlink RPC via tez_getEthereumTezosAddress and used as the account returned by eth_requestAccounts.
Wallet variant
The TezosX Wallet extension uses the same RelayerProvider and GatewayBuilder, but replaces BeaconClient with LocalSignerClient — a self-contained signer that holds the Tezos secret key in service worker memory. This eliminates the Temple dependency entirely.
See the Wallet Architecture for the full runtime boundary diagram specific to the wallet extension.