It looks like the problem is that %balances is growing unwieldy. So the simplest solution is to tie the hash to an on disk representation. You could do this via DB_File for instance and only have to change two or three lines in your code.

You could also use a RDBMS for this, but given what ive read so far I dont see the point, and this may not be an option for you.

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demerphq

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
-- Gandhi