Is the client responsible for the federation lookup and response?

Question

According to the documentation when you do a federation lookup by name the server can specify the memo_type and memo text in the response.

https://www.stellar.org/developers/guides/concepts/federation.html#federation-response

Is it the responsibility of the wallet/client software to handle the federation lookup and parse the response then build the transaction?

Automatically populating the memo server side based on the federation address could be really powerful, but you would have to trust that all clients implement the lookup correctly.

Answer 1

It's up to the client whether to use particular federation lookup parameter or not. "I forgot to add the memo while sending funds to exchange, how can I get my lumens back?" – that's roughly 1/3 of all support requests from Stellar newcomers. Life would be much easier if all exchanges/anchors implement the federation protocol correctly.

To my mind, the complete implementation of federation should be a must for all wallets. Actually, the list of requirements for wallets on the Stellar Build Challenge page can be the first step to the wallets quality assessment.