| ACP | 23 |
|---|---|
| Title | P-Chain Native Transfers |
| Author(s) | Dhruba Basu (@dhrubabasu) |
| Status | Activated |
| Track | Standards |
Support native transfers on P-chain. This enables users to transfer P-chain assets without leaving the P-chain or using a transaction type that's not meant for native transfers.
Currently, the P-chain has no simple transfer transaction type. The X-chain supports this functionality through a BaseTx. Although the P-chain contains transaction types that extend BaseTx, the BaseTx transaction type itself is not a valid transaction. This leads to abnormal implementations of P-chain native transfers like in the AvalancheGo wallet which abuses CreateSubnetTx to replicate the functionality contained in BaseTx.
With the growing number of subnets slated for launch on the Avalanche network, simple transfers will be demanded more by users. While there are work-arounds as mentioned before, the network should support it natively to provide a cheaper option for both validators and end-users.
To support BaseTx, Avalanche Network Clients (like AvalancheGo) must register BaseTx with the type ID 0x22 in codec version 0x00.
For the specification of the transaction itself, see here. Note that most other P-chain transactions extend this type, the only change in this ACP is to register it as a valid transaction itself.
Adding a new transaction type is an execution change and requires a mandatory upgrade for activation. Implementors must take care to reject this transaction prior to activation. This ACP only details the specification of the added BaseTx transaction type.
An implementation of BaseTx support was created here and subsequently merged into AvalancheGo. Since the "D" Upgrade is not activated, this transaction will be rejected by AvalancheGo.
If modifications are made to the specification of the transaction as part of the ACP process, the code must be updated prior to activation.
The P-chain has fixed fees which does not place any limits on chain throughput. A potentially popular transaction type like BaseTx may cause periods of high usage. The reference implementation in AvalancheGo sets the transaction fee to 0.001 AVAX as a deterrent (equivalent to ImportTx and ExportTx). This should be sufficient for the time being but a dynamic fee mechanism will need to be added to the P-chain in the future to mitigate this security concern. This is not addressed in this ACP as it requires a larger change to the fee dynamics on the P-chain as a whole.
No open questions.
Thanks to @StephenButtolph and @abi87 for their feedback on the reference implementation.
Copyright and related rights waived via CC0.