Bitwise Operations

Bitwise operations are low-level computational techniques that manipulate individual bits within a data word. By performing operations like AND, OR, XOR, and shifts, developers can store multiple boolean flags or small values inside a single integer.

This is a highly efficient way to manage contract state and reduce storage costs. In financial protocols, bitwise operations are used for efficient status tracking, permissions, and flags that do not require full 256-bit integers.

Mastering these operations allows for significantly leaner smart contract code that is cheaper to execute.