Use utils from ethereum-cryptography package

[prichodko]

As a part of the process of migrating from Node builtins, I would move to use utilities, like hexToBytes, bytesToHex from the ethereum-cryptography package.

As you can see in the implementation, they don't rely on the Buffer builtin.

[D4nte]

Thanks @prichodko. Could you please clarify the gain of using implementations from ethereum-cryptography over the current implementation? I am not sure we want to add a new dependency.

[prichodko]

Current implementation indirectly forces users to depend on a Buffer polyfill and essentially adds 2000 lines / 26kB of code. The proposed solution suggests only using what is needed for the package to work.

The ethereum-cryptography package seems to be tree-shakeable, therefore allowing bundlers to pull only the imported code and not the whole package. However, there may be other parts depending on the Buffer, which would need the refactoring as well.

[prichodko]

Do you know, if any js-waku dependencies need Buffer polyfill?

[D4nte]

Do you know, if any js-waku dependencies need Buffer polyfill?

This will be answered as part of #527

Current implementation indirectly forces users to depend on a Buffer polyfill and essentially adds 2000 lines / 26kB of code. The proposed solution suggests only using what is needed for the package to work.

hextToBytes and bytesToHex do not use Buffer:

https://github.com/status-im/js-waku/blob/c1c1858175940264845721bb8db24ae19b281e10/src/lib/utils.ts#L19

I think you are referring to hexToBuf and bufToHex who already are on their way out.

I guess we had a race condition between you investigating and me changing the code :).

[D4nte]

The worry here is the usage of the Buffer polyfill, this is resolved with #726.

Note that ts-proto uses Buffer: tracked with #335.
Some dependencies are using buffer: Will review as part of #527