What are blockchain transactions?
Let’s face it, at times learning the ins and outs of Bitcoin when you’re a beginner can be daunting. Bitcoin at its core can be technical in nature (think of how technical it is to understand how the Internet works too) and for the layman, understanding its intricacies may prove difficult. Seeing the Blockchain address and transaction page for the first time may also be confusing. To make it easier to understand, we wanted to provide users with a breakdown of the Bitcoin addresses page, to help you understand exactly what it is you’re seeing and how to use it.
We’ll start top to bottom
We are using a random Bitcoin address pulled from a recent transaction in the blockchain as an example. Here is the URL:
On the upper left of the page, you will see the Summary section, which looks like this:
- The Address is the Bitcoin public address. It is safe to share this with others. Never share your Private Bitcoin address with anyone though.
- Hash 160 is a technical term for the cryptographically hashed Bitcoin public address in a shorter format. For the more technically minded, learn more about Hash 160 here.
- Tools links to other tools that we provide to help review Bitcoin addresses and their transaction history.
The upper right side of the page is a bit more simplistic, showing the number of transactions, total bitcoins received, and final bitcoin balance. In addition, you can click Request Payment to create a unique QR code for a certain amount of bitcoins or dollars. The Donation Button helps users create a Bitcoin donation widget for your blog or website.
The bottom section labeled Transactions is for all of the transactions associated with each public Bitcoin address. As you can see, this address above has separate transactions, listed with the oldest on top. Let’s go through each section to better understand it.
