Transaction¶

Transaction types¶

Symbol supports many different transaction types. For example, there are transactions to transfer mosaics between accounts, messages or configure the ownership of accounts (including the use of multisig rules), and more.

The following transaction types are included in Symbol based networks by default:

Every base transaction type available in Symbol is defined as a separate plugin. The plugin approach allows developers to introduce new transaction types without modifying the core engine or disrupting other features.

Defining a transaction¶

Transactions are defined in a serialized form. Every transaction extends from the base transaction schema definition, adding the type’s particular properties.

All transactions should define a deadline and a max_fee:

• deadline: A transaction has a time window to be accepted before it reaches its deadline. The transaction expires when the deadline is reached and all the nodes reject the transaction. By default, the SDK sets the deadline to 2 hours, but it can be extended up to 24 hours.
• max_fee: The maximum amount of network currency that the sender of the transaction is willing to pay to get the transaction accepted. The next documentation shows you how to set the optimal max_fee value.

We recommend using the SDK to define new transactions.

// replace with recipient address
const rawAddress = 'TB6Q5E-YACWBP-CXKGIL-I6XWCH-DRFLTB-KUK34I-YJQ';
const recipientAddress = Address.createFromRawAddress(rawAddress);
// replace with network type
const networkType = NetworkType.TEST_NET;
// replace with symbol.xym id
const networkCurrencyMosaicId = new MosaicId('5E62990DCAC5BE8A');
// replace with network currency divisibility
const networkCurrencyDivisibility = 6;

const transferTransaction = TransferTransaction.create(
    Deadline.create(),
    recipientAddress,
    [new Mosaic (networkCurrencyMosaicId,
        UInt64.fromUint(10 * Math.pow(10, networkCurrencyDivisibility)))],
    PlainMessage.create('This is a test message'),
    networkType,
    UInt64.fromUint(2000000));

Signing a transaction¶

Accounts must sign transactions before announcing them to the network. Signing a transaction expresses the account’s agreement to change the network state as defined.

For example, a TransferTransaction describes who the recipient is and the number of mosaics to transfer. In this case, signing the transaction means to accept moving those mosaics from one account’s balance to another.

An account has to follow the next steps to sign a transaction:

1. Get the signing bytes, which are all the bytes of the transaction except the size, signature, and signer.
2. Get the nemesis block generation hash. You can query nodeUrl + '/node/info' and copy meta.networkGenerationHash value.
3. Prepend the nemesis block generation hash to the signing bytes.
4. Sign the resulting string with the signer’s private key. This will give you the transaction signature.
5. Append the signer’s signature and public key to the transaction to obtain the payload.
6. Calculate the transaction hash by applying SHA3-512 hashing algorithm to the first 32 bytes of signature, the signer public key, nemesis block generation hash, and the remaining transaction payload.

// replace with sender private key
const privateKey = '1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111';
const account = Account.createFromPrivateKey(privateKey, networkType);
// replace with meta.networkGenerationHash (nodeUrl + '/node/info')
const networkGenerationHash = '1DFB2FAA9E7F054168B0C5FCB84F4DEB62CC2B4D317D861F3168D161F54EA78B';
const signedTransaction = account.sign(transferTransaction, networkGenerationHash);
console.log('Payload:', signedTransaction.payload);
console.log('Transaction Hash:', signedTransaction.hash);

Announcing a transaction¶

Signed transactions are ready to be announced to the network. You can either use the SDK TransactionHttp service or append the payload to the request of the transaction endpoint.

// replace with node endpoint
const nodeUrl = 'http://api-01.us-east-1.096x.symboldev.network:3000';
const repositoryFactory = new RepositoryFactoryHttp(nodeUrl);
const transactionHttp = repositoryFactory.createTransactionRepository();

transactionHttp
    .announce(signedTransaction)
    .subscribe((x) => console.log(x), (err) => console.error(err));

curl -X PUT -H "Content-type: application/json" -d '{"payload":"B3000000F77A8DCFCB57B81F9BE5B46738F7132998F55123BFF4D89DC8E5CAE1F071A040E5571F4D8DA125B243C785DA5261F878E3DE898815F6E8F12A2C0A5F0A9C3504FA6249E8334E3F83E972461125504AFFD3E7750AFBB3371E7B2D22A599A3D0E3039054410000000000000000265DEE3F1700000090FA39EC47E05600AFA74308A7EA607D145E371B5F4F1447BC0F00010057656C636F6D6520546F204E454D44B262C46CEABB858096980000000000"}' http://localhost:3000/transaction

After announcing the transaction, the REST API will always return an OK response immediately. At this point, it is still unknown whether the transaction is valid.

Transaction cycle

Validation¶

The first stage of validation happens in the API nodes. If the transaction encounters an error, the WebSocket throws a notification through the status channel. If not, the transaction reaches the P2P network with an unconfirmed status. In this state, it is not yet clear if the transaction will get included in a block. Thus, an unconfirmed transaction should never be replied upon.

The second validation happens before the transaction is added in a harvested block. If successful, the harvester stores the transaction in a block and the transaction reaches the confirmed status.

Continuing the previous example, the transaction gets processed and the amount stated gets transferred from the signer’s account to the recipient’s account. Additionally, the transaction fee is deducted from the signer’s account.

The transaction has zero confirmations at this point. When another block is added to the blockchain, the transaction has one confirmation. The next block added to the chain will give it two confirmations and so on.

Under certain circumstances, like network failure or partition, the most recent confirmed blocks might need to be reversed. Rollbacks are characteristic of blockchain systems and essential to resolve forks.

In the public network, a transaction is considered to be irrevocable when it receives 398 confirmations. But the maximum number of blocks that can be rolled back is configurable per network. In other words, it is necessary to wait at least 398 blocks after a transaction receives its first confirmation to guarantee that it cannot be reversed on the public network.

Spam Throttle¶

The node’s cache holds unconfirmed transactions until they can be included in a block. Since cache is a valuable resource, Symbol implements a spam throttle that prevents an attacker from filling the cache with unconfirmed transactions while still letting honest actors successfully submit new unconfirmed transactions.

The spam throttle controls the amount of unconfirmed transactions accounts can submit by calculating the fair share of cache for each account relative to its importance score. If an account has surpassed its fair share of the cache and the node cache contains more unconfirmed transactions than the amount that can be included in a single block, the transaction will be rejected. This effectively blocks malicious actors from spamming a node with transactions while allowing other users to continue using the node normally.

Guides¶

• Turning the asynchronous transaction announcement into synchronous

  Handy snippet to announce a transaction and wait until this is confirmed.

Continue: Fees.