Transactions & Transfers

Transactions and transfers are the two most common resources in the Tempo API, and they are easy to confuse. They describe different things: a transaction is what a user submits to the chain, while a transfer is a token movement that results from executing one.

Tempo transaction and transfer model

• A transaction is what a user submits to Tempo: a signed envelope that moves value or calls a contract. It may produce zero, one, or many token transfers. Query /v1/transfers to list the token movements it caused.
• A transfer is an effect of transaction execution: a TIP-20 token moved from one account to another. Multiple transfers can come from a single transaction, and some transactions produce no transfers at all.

A transaction that calls a contract might emit several transfers (for example, a swap that moves tokens in and out), exactly one (a simple payment), or none (a contract call that updates state without moving tokens). Each transfer carries the transactionHash of the transaction that produced it, so you can always trace a movement back to the transaction that caused it.

╭───────────────────────╮      produces 0..N       ╭───────────────────────╮
│      Transaction      │ ───────────────────────▶ │       Transfer        │
│ (what a user submits) │                          │ (observed token move) │
╰───────────────────────╯                          ╰───────────────────────╯
                                                               │
                                                               │ transactionHash
                                                               ▼
                                                  resolves back to its transaction

When to use transactions or transfers