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I'm writing my first smart contract. At a certain point I need it to start a countdown like process, it must perform a token transfer after a certain number of blocks. This is giving me some problems.

Is there a way that's already been explored to efficiently do it?

EDIT: I want the smart contract to perform the transaction, not to schedule a transaction to be sent at a certain block height from my node

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    You can't schedule a transaction within the blockchain. You'll need to compete against other transactions by bidding on a slot for that block by setting a gas price. Otherwise, you could game the system by paying a low gas price in the present to avoid a crunch for space later.
    – lungj
    Commented Sep 12, 2017 at 15:07
  • @lungj thanks! I found this browsing ethereum-alarm-clock.com should do exactly what I want right?
    – SilverCookies
    Commented Sep 12, 2017 at 20:29
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    Yes, that's what the Ethereum alarm clock is for; however, I don't know if it's being used or maintained. It requires other users to wake your function by you incentivizing them. It's not a self-contained system.
    – lungj
    Commented Sep 12, 2017 at 23:06

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Consider a withdrawal-like pattern. I can't say specifically without more details, and this may not be exactly what you are looking for, but I think that you could learn something from this post here.

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Actually performing a token transfer will require you to interact with the contract, which will cost your gas for every call that you'll make.

You can create a function that will check, when called, how much time has passed, using some simple logic in combination with Time Units (https://solidity.readthedocs.io/en/develop/units-and-global-variables.html).

That's one way to do it, there are of course other ways, variously implemented over some projects.

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