Stellar — Distributing token to multiple accounts

Let say, we would like to distribute token to multiple accounts. What options do we have? And what are their pros and cons?

Here we are going to compare 4 methods:

1. Queue transactions
2. Batch operations
3. Use destination as source account
4. Source account pool

1. Queue transaction

One of the Stellar transaction constraints is that the sequence number of a transaction must be one greater than the sequence number stored in the source account entry. If we submit multiple transactions with the same source account at the same time, we will see error tx_bad_seq. The simplest method is to to queue up transactions and send them out one by one

Pros:

• Simple and straightforward.
• Able to set memo for each transaction

Cons:

• Time consumes. For 100 transactions, it would take up to 8 mins.

2. Batch operations

Stellar allows up to 100 operations per transaction. We can group transfer operations together and send them out in batch

https://gist.github.com/niponchi/bb6524d80bcaa7a4bf73f9bca758dfce

Pros:

• Fast: up to 100 operations in 5 seconds

Cons:

• Cannot set memo for each operation

3. Use destination as source account

If you have a control over destination account (using multi-signature), or able to obtain its secret key. This method is to use destination account as source account of the transaction. Each transaction then can use its own sequence number, so there is no conflict among them.

One thing to add here, transaction fee will be charged to destination account. You can compensate transaction fee along with this transaction too. Amount of fee are (#operations + 1) * base_fee in xml.

https://gist.github.com/niponchi/732303b3acd5c86ea3ff9548969814ca

Pros:

• Can submit transactions in parallel
• Able to set memo for each transaction
• Fixed base reserve for an account
• Fast: up to 100 operations in 5 seconds

Cons:

• Need a control over destination account or its secret key
• In transaction history of destination account, there will be records of small amount compensation fee, i.e. 0.00002 xlm.

4. Source account pool

You can create set of Stellar accounts and manage them in source account pool. Like database connection pool, this pool means to be shared as a source account submitting Stellar transaction. If the is a free account available, use that account as source account. Otherwise wait until pool is available

You can also transfer to compensation fee to accounts in pool to maintain their base reserve

Pros:

• Flexible: can handle one operation at a time or set of operations
• Scalable by adjusting pool size
• Do not need a control over destination account or its secret key
• Able to set memo for each transaction
• General purpose
• Processing time depends on number of agents in pool

Cons:

• Complexity in pool manager
• Extra credentials to maintain

Full example can be found at https://github.com/niponchi/stellar_transfer_examples