Error when sending multiple transactions

Question

I'm having a weird issue with the code below in that sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. It seems more apparent when TRANSACTIONS is set to a larger number. I have had it fail AND pass with TRANSACTIONSset to 20. What boggles my mind is that if i set from: to always be accounts[0] it seems to work every time, even when i set TRANSACTIONS to 100. The error is thrown in executePromises() and I show the error below but it's a Error: gas required exceeds allowance (8000029) or always failing transaction-error. Further i have observed that, when it fails, it does send out some transactions that get picked up for example it sent out transactions for account 1-5 but not for the 6th or 7th etc.

Can someone shed some light on this?

async function multipleTx(
  TRANSACTIONS,
  GAS_PRICE,
) {
  let accounts = await web3.eth.getAccounts()
  let tripKey = 0
  var sendBlockNumber = await web3.eth.getBlockNumber()
  let bookingPromiseArr = []
  let txStartTime = Date.now()
  for (let i = 0; i < TRANSACTIONS; i++) {
    let promise = ''
    promise = instance.methods.bookTrip(tripKey).send({
      from: accounts[i],
      gasPrice: GAS_PRICE,
      value: 1,
    })
    bookingPromiseArr.push(promise)
  }
  var receipts = await executePromises(bookingPromiseArr)

  /* more code below ...*/
}

async function executePromises(promisesArr) {
  let res = await Promise.all(promisesArr)
    .then(async (receipts) => {
      return receipts
    })
    .catch((error) => {
      console.log('executePromises():', error)
      process.exit(1)
    })
  return res
}

Smart Contract Function

    function bookTrip(uint256 key) external payable requireTrip(key) {
        Trip storage trip = trips[key];
        trip.passengers[msg.sender] = trip.price;
        trip.passengerCount++;
        emit LogNewTripPassenger(msg.sender, key, trip.price);
    }

Error Log:

executePromises(): Error: gas required exceeds allowance (8000029) or always fai
ling transaction
    at C:\Users\Diddi\Documents\mjukvaruteknik\examensarbete\tqdt33\node_modules
\@truffle\hdwallet-provider\node_modules\web3-provider-engine\subproviders\provi
der.js:18:36
    at XMLHttpRequest.request.onreadystatechange (C:\Users\Diddi\Documents\mjukv
aruteknik\examensarbete\tqdt33\node_modules\web3-providers-http\src\index.js:96:
13)
    at XMLHttpRequestEventTarget.dispatchEvent (C:\Users\Diddi\Documents\mjukvar
uteknik\examensarbete\tqdt33\node_modules\xhr2-cookies\xml-http-request-event-ta
rget.ts:44:13)
    at XMLHttpRequest._setReadyState (C:\Users\Diddi\Documents\mjukvaruteknik\ex
amensarbete\tqdt33\node_modules\xhr2-cookies\xml-http-request.ts:219:8)
    at XMLHttpRequest._onHttpResponseEnd (C:\Users\Diddi\Documents\mjukvarutekni
k\examensarbete\tqdt33\node_modules\xhr2-cookies\xml-http-request.ts:345:8)
    at IncomingMessage.<anonymous> (C:\Users\Diddi\Documents\mjukvaruteknik\exam
ensarbete\tqdt33\node_modules\xhr2-cookies\xml-http-request.ts:311:39)
    at IncomingMessage.emit (events.js:228:7)
    at endReadableNT (_stream_readable.js:1185:12)
    at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/task_queues.js:81:21)

Update

I took the advice that @LauriPeltonen gave and stripped everything down as much as I could and looked at what @goodvibration suggested regarding mixing synchronous and asynchronous execution in an incorrect manner. I still get the same error. The code below shows Transaction set to 50. On etherscan I can see that my smart contract received 20 of those supposed 50 transactions. However on a second attempt it managed to send all 50.

const web3 = require('./web3.js')
const DeRail = require('../../build/contracts/DeRail.json')
const address = require('../../address.json')
const instance = new web3.eth.Contract(DeRail.abi, address.address, {
  gasPrice: '20000000000',
})

async function multipleTx(TRANSACTIONS = 50, GAS_PRICE = 1000000000) {
  let accounts = await web3.eth.getAccounts()
  let tripKey = 19
  console.log(accounts.length)
  let bookingPromiseArr = []
  for (let i = 0; i < TRANSACTIONS; i++) {
    let promise = instance.methods.bookTrip(tripKey).send({
      from: accounts[i],
      gasPrice: GAS_PRICE,
      value: 1,
    })
    bookingPromiseArr.push(promise)
  }
  var receipts = await executePromises(bookingPromiseArr)
  process.exit(0)
}

async function executePromises(promisesArr) {
  try {
    let res = await Promise.all(promisesArr)
    return res
  } catch (error) {
    console.log('executePromises():', error.message)
    process.exit(1)
  }
}

multipleTx()

Answer 1

This seem to have been entirely a problem with Infura. I suspect it is in regard to their rate limits. Nevertheless we have now set up our own ethereum node using geth and are able to isssue as many transactions as we want pretty much problem free!