State Override in eth_call Stopped Working - Breaking Account Abstraction

[mgarbs]

Description

State override parameters in eth_call that previously worked are now returning "Invalid params" errors. This is a regression that occurred within the last 2 months and is blocking production Account Abstraction (AA) functionality.

Impact

• Severity: Production blocking Thirdweb on mainnet and testnet
• Affected: Account Abstraction wallets on Hedera
• Users impacted: All developers using AA with Hedera through ThirdWeb and potentially other providers

Steps to Reproduce

1. Execute eth_call WITH state override (currently fails):

curl https://296.rpc.thirdweb.com/ \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 1,
    "method": "eth_call",
    "params": [
      {
        "from": "0x27a979fFaF23cA83c0789E3d475f14A0B7D45e6b",
        "to": "0x5FF137D4b0FDCD49DcA30c7CF57E578a026d2789",
        "data": "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"
      },
      "latest",
      {
        "0x1de7C049399a48Dd2eB1c29aD8349B7E1AdCaA60": {
          "balance": "0x56bc75e2d63100000"
        }
      }
    ]
  }'

Current Result:

{
  "error": {
    "code": -32602,
    "message": "[Request ID: ...] Invalid params"
  }
}

Expected Result: Successful execution with overridden balance

2. Even simple state overrides fail:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "eth_call",
  "params": [
    {
      "to": "0x5FF137D4b0FDCD49DcA30c7CF57E578a026d2789",
      "data": "0x"
    },
    "latest",
    {
      "0x1de7C049399a48Dd2eB1c29aD8349B7E1AdCaA60": {
        "balance": "0x56bc75e2d63100000"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Previous Behavior

• Timeline: Thirdweb - "State overrides were working as recently as July 2025"
• What changed: This functionality stopped working without any changes on Thirdwebs end (they upgraded their relay to 0.71 recently and this is when they noticed the change
• Last known working: Approximately 2 months ago

Why This Is Critical

1. Account Abstraction Requirement

Balance overrides are required for AA to function properly on Hedera due to decimal differences:

• HBAR: 8 decimal places (1 HBAR = 100,000,000 tinybar)
• ETH: 18 decimal places (1 ETH = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 wei)

Without balance overrides, AA wallets encounter validation errors due to this decimal mismatch.

2. Standard JSON-RPC Feature

State overrides are part of the standard Ethereum JSON-RPC specification for eth_call and eth_estimateGas. They're essential for:

• Testing contract interactions without spending gas
• Simulating transactions with modified balances
• Account Abstraction implementations

3. Multi-chain Compatibility

This regression breaks Hedera's compatibility with standard Ethereum tooling and makes it inconsistent with other EVM-compatible chains.

Environment

• JSON-RPC Relay Version: Latest (issue persists across versions)
• Network: mainnet and testnet
• RPC Endpoint: https://296.rpc.thirdweb.com
• First noticed: Within the last 2 months
• Last confirmed working: July 2025

Additional Context

• Thirdweb hasn't updated our node in 2 months (previous verion 0.70) and it is not qorking in 0.71
• The v0.71.0 release notes mention "stricter balance validation" which may be related
• This is affecting production AA wallets and blocking deployments

Requested Resolution

1. Restore state override functionality for eth_call and eth_estimateGas
2. If intentionally removed: Please provide migration path and reasoning
3. Urgent timeline needed as this is blocking production functionality

References

• Ethereum JSON-RPC Specification for eth_call
• State override is documented as the 3rd parameter in eth_call

Thank you for your attention to this critical issue.

[quiet-node]

There is a third param in the eth_call requests I don't believe we ever support this on our Relay I wonder how it worked before.

The invalid params response is expected because eth_call in the Relay only supports two params, transactions and blocktag https://github.com/hiero-ledger/hiero-json-rpc-relay/blob/main/packages/relay/src/lib/eth.ts#L968.

Could you have them double-check how it worked before? I think there may have been a confusion because we follow the standard Ethereum execution API and don’t support override state for eth_call.

[Ferparishuertas]

Hi @mgarbs
The state override has been never supported. What has happen is that we enforced a new validation scheme in this PR and as we were not supporting the third parameter functionally but neither validating it, now with the change, validation, makes the invalid data appear.

In summary we always broke the spec, the users were thinking override was applied but not, and with the validation we changed the response.

We are going to implement and release a hotfix for this.

That said to implement the override, we need to define a HIP, and implement the functionality at MN level.
Also we will need to review what is on the rpc spec on this, because it should have failed