Submitting a Simple Transaction

Let's walk through an example to send 10 ADA to CoinCashew's tip address 🙃

The minimum amount, or smallest UTXO, you can send in one transaction is 1 ADA.

First, find the tip of the blockchain to set the invalid-hereafter parameter properly.

block producer node

currentSlot=$(cardano-cli query tip --mainnet | jq -r '.slot')
echo Current Slot: $currentSlot

Set the amount to send in lovelaces. ✨ Remember 1 ADA = 1,000,000 lovelaces.

block producer node

amountToSend=10000000
echo amountToSend: $amountToSend

Set the destination address which is where you're sending funds to.

block producer node

destinationAddress=addr1qxhazv2dp8yvqwyxxlt7n7ufwhw582uqtcn9llqak736ptfyf8d2zwjceymcq6l5gxht0nx9zwazvtvnn22sl84tgkyq7guw7q
echo destinationAddress: $destinationAddress

Find your balance and UTXOs.

block producer node

cardano-cli query utxo \
    --address $(cat payment.addr) \
    --mainnet > fullUtxo.out

tail -n +3 fullUtxo.out | sort -k3 -nr > balance.out

cat balance.out

tx_in=""
total_balance=0
while read -r utxo; do
    type=$(awk '{ print $6 }' <<< "${utxo}")
    if [[ ${type} == 'TxOutDatumNone' ]]
    then
        in_addr=$(awk '{ print $1 }' <<< "${utxo}")
        idx=$(awk '{ print $2 }' <<< "${utxo}")
        utxo_balance=$(awk '{ print $3 }' <<< "${utxo}")
        total_balance=$((${total_balance}+${utxo_balance}))
        echo TxHash: ${in_addr}#${idx}
        echo ADA: ${utxo_balance}
        tx_in="${tx_in} --tx-in ${in_addr}#${idx}"
    fi
done < balance.out
txcnt=$(cat balance.out | wc -l)
echo Total available ADA balance: ${total_balance}
echo Number of UTXOs: ${txcnt}

Run the build-raw transaction command.

block producer node

cardano-cli transaction build-raw \
    ${tx_in} \
    --tx-out $(cat payment.addr)+0 \
    --tx-out ${destinationAddress}+0 \
    --invalid-hereafter $(( ${currentSlot} + 10000)) \
    --fee 0 \
    --out-file tx.tmp

Calculate the current minimum fee:

block producer node

fee=$(cardano-cli transaction calculate-min-fee \
    --tx-body-file tx.tmp \
    --tx-in-count ${txcnt} \
    --tx-out-count 2 \
    --mainnet \
    --witness-count 1 \
    --byron-witness-count 0 \
    --protocol-params-file params.json | awk '{ print $1 }')
echo fee: $fee

Calculate your change output.

block producer node

txOut=$((${total_balance}-${fee}-${amountToSend}))
echo Change Output: ${txOut}

Build your transaction.

block producer node

cardano-cli transaction build-raw \
    ${tx_in} \
    --tx-out $(cat payment.addr)+${txOut} \
    --tx-out ${destinationAddress}+${amountToSend} \
    --invalid-hereafter $(( ${currentSlot} + 10000)) \
    --fee ${fee} \
    --out-file tx.raw

Copy tx.raw to your cold environment.

Sign the transaction with the payment secret key.

air-gapped offline machine

cardano-cli transaction sign \
    --tx-body-file tx.raw \
    --signing-key-file payment.skey \
    --mainnet \
    --out-file tx.signed

Copy tx.signed to your hot environment.

Send the signed transaction.

block producer node

cardano-cli transaction submit \
    --tx-file tx.signed \
    --mainnet

Check if the funds arrived.

block producer node

cardano-cli query utxo \
    --address ${destinationAddress} \
    --mainnet

You should see output similar to this showing the funds you sent.

                           TxHash                                 TxIx        Lovelace
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
100322a39d02c2ead....                                              0        10000000