Transaction Lifecycle

A typical Ergo payment moves through four well‑defined stages. Follow them in order to keep code, wallets, and monitoring tools predictable.

1. Address creation – pick or derive addresses for deposits and change
2. Unsigned composition – gather inputs, craft outputs, and set the fee
3. Signature – sign with the node wallet or an offline keystore
4. Broadcast & confirmation tracking – publish the JSON and watch the mempool

Each section links to demo code, REST calls, and common hazards.

1. Address Creation

Ergo follows BIP‑32/BIP‑44. One seed drives two deterministic chains:

1.1 Programmatic derivation (preferred)

A withdrawal must target P2PK. Other types break audit logic and UX.

Path template

m / 44' / 429' / account' / chain / index

1.2 Node wallet derivation

curl "http://localhost:9053/wallet/deriveNextKey"   -H "accept: application/json"   -H "api_key: hello"

{
  "derivationPath": "m/44'/429'/0'/0/1",
  "address": "9gF9QP33MoPc8uekF95VHdosL4KzgSz7Ec7MLEtuhx4uPAd3eZs"
}

2. Unsigned Composition

A raw transaction selects inputs, defines outputs, and declares a fee. No cryptographic proof appears yet.

2.1 Input selection (UTXO lookup)

• Explorer: GET /transactions/boxes/byAddress/unspent
• Local node: GET /wallet/boxes/unspent

2.2 Binary bytes for each box

curl http://localhost:9053/utxo/byIdBinary/{boxId}

Use the resulting bytes in inputsRaw.

2.3 Mempool exclusion

GET /transactions/unconfirmed/byErgoTree/{ergoTree}

or download the whole list:

GET /transactions/unconfirmed

2.4 Batch withdrawals

1. Collect pending payouts.
2. Create one output per user.
3. Send the remainder to the change address.

2.5 Fee rule

3. Signature

3.1 One‑call node workflow

POST /wallet/payment/send

Parameters

The node picks inputs, signs, and broadcasts.

3.2 Offline workflow

1. Build the unsigned JSON with a library.
2. Copy the file to an air‑gapped host.
3. Sign with the master or account key.
4. Bring the signed JSON back.
5. Broadcast through any node or explorer.

4. Broadcast & Confirmation Tracking

4.1 Broadcast

If you're using Java (ergo‑appkit), serialize the signed transaction like this:

Json json = JsonCodecsWrapper.ergoLikeTransactionEncoder().apply(tx);
System.out.println(json.toString());

Public explorer

curl -X POST https://api.ergoplatform.com/api/v0/transactions/send      -H "Content-Type: application/json"      -d '{ ...signedTxJson... }'

Local node

curl -X POST http://localhost:9053/transactions      -H "Content-Type: application/json"      -d '{ ... }'

4.2 Monitor

• Explorer: GET /transactions/{txId} → numConfirmations
• Node: GET /transactions/unconfirmed/{txId} returns 404 after confirmation

A deposit becomes safe after 10 blocks (~20 min).

5. Troubleshooting

6. FAQ

Return to the Node & Wallet Configuration page and confirm the infrastructure settings.