Abstract: Apparatus and methods are provided for a tentative-hold-based protocol for distributed transaction processing. According to one embodiment, a distributed transaction coordinator receives information regarding an atomic distributed transaction representing an aggregation of multiple discrete transactions for resource items that span two or more network resources. The distributed transaction coordinator places a tentative hold on each of the resource items by causing a tentative hold record to be created and associated with each of the discrete transactions. The tentative holds operate in a non-mutually exclusive manner, thereby allowing the same resource item to be tentatively held by more than one transaction.