Setting up a Hardhat Project

To setup a project that uses Hardhat for Ethereum contract development, do the following:

Install a recent version of Node.js. We need the npm and npx commands for the rest of this chapter.
Create a new directory and enter it.
```
mkdir hello-world
cd hello-world
```
Initialize a new Node.js project.
```
npm init -y
```
The directory should contain a single file called package.json.
Install Hardhat by running the following command in the hello-world directory.
```
npm install --save-dev hardhat
```
The package.json file will now have a hardhat section under devDependencies.
Create a Hardhat project by running the following command. Choose the Create an empty hardhat.config.js option.
```
npx hardhat
```
The directory will have a file called hardhat.config.js with the following contents.
```
/** @type import('hardhat/config').HardhatUserConfig */
module.exports = {
    solidity: "0.8.17",
};
```
The number 0.8.17 specifies the version of the Solidity compiler.

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