Wallet Transaction Signing API (Functional) | Algorand Developer Portal

Wallet Transaction Signing API (Functional)

This ARC is intended to be completely compatible with ARC-1.

Abstract

ARC-1 defines a standard for signing transactions with security in mind. This proposal is a strict subset of ARC-1 that outlines only the minimum functionality required in order to be usable.

Wallets that conform to ARC-1 already conform to this API.

Wallets conforming to ARC-5 but not ARC-1 MUST only be used for testing purposes and MUST NOT be used on MainNet. This is because this ARC-5 does not provide the same security guarantees as ARC-1 to protect properly wallet users.

Specification

The key words “ MUST”, “ MUST NOT”, “ REQUIRED”, “ SHALL”, “ SHALL NOT”, “ SHOULD”, “ SHOULD NOT”, “ RECOMMENDED”, “ MAY”, and “ OPTIONAL” in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC-2119.

Comments like this are non-normative.

Interface `SignTxnsFunction`

Signatures are requested by calling a function signTxns(txns) on a list txns of transactions. The dApp may also provide an optional parameter opts.

A wallet transaction signing function signTxns is defined by the following interface:

export type SignTxnsFunction = (

txns: WalletTransaction[],

opts?: SignTxnsOpts,

)

=> Promise<(SignedTxnStr | null)[]>;

SignTxnsOpts is as specified by ARC-1.
SignedTxnStr is as specified by ARC-1.

A SignTxnsFunction:

expects txns to be in the correct format as specified by WalletTransaction.

Interface `WalletTransaction`

export interface WalletTransaction {

/**

* Base64 encoding of the canonical msgpack encoding of a Transaction.

*/

txn: string;
}

Semantic requirements

The call signTxns(txns, opts) MUST either throw an error or return an array ret of the same length as the txns array.
Each element of ret MUST be a valid SignedTxnStr with the underlying transaction exactly matching txns[i].txn.

This ARC uses interchangeably the terms “throw an error” and “reject a promise with an error”.

signTxns SHOULD follow the error standard specified in ARC-0001.

UI requirements

Wallets satisfying this ARC but not ARC-0001 MUST clearly display a warning to the user that they MUST not be used with real funds on MainNet.

Rationale

This simplified version of ARC-0001 exists for two main reasons:

To outline the minimum amount of functionality needed in order to be useful.
To serve as a stepping stone towards full ARC-0001 compatibility.

While this ARC MUST not be used by users with real funds on MainNet for security reasons, this simplified API sets a lower bar and acts as a signpost for which wallets can even be used at all.

Security Considerations

None.