Every week, the BeInCrypto editors collect questions from members of our Telegram community and answer the most interesting ones in a special material.
Today we tell you how to check a Bitcoin (BTC) transaction.
How transactions work on the Bitcoin network
Since Bitcoin has no physical form, transaction information is stored on a distributed ledger, which provides a “ledger” for all transactions involving the cryptocurrency.
Identification of wallet owners is carried out by codes consisting of a combination of letters and numbers, and each transaction is a record indicating the entry, where the amount is redirected to another address, or the exit, if the amount is sent to someone else.
The transfer of BTC is carried out using a digital signature of the transaction hash, which is added to the coin in the blockchain. The duration of the operation can vary — from several minutes to several hours, and sometimes days. It depends on the workload of miners who confirm transactions.
How to check them
The unique TxID identifier will help you track and verify your Bitcoin transaction.. You can find it in the transaction log on the cryptocurrency exchange or in the application. Different trading platforms may have slight differences in how they look up the TxID, but the general approach will look like this:
Go to the transaction history page Find the relevant transaction in the list In the transaction information, find the “TxID” field and copy its value If you need detailed information about the transaction, open its details
Popular platforms usually provide data on the status of the transaction, the current confirmation stage and errors that occurred during the process.
Services for tracking Bitcoin transactions
Mempool.space
The mempool.space service allows you to view information about the mempool and the BTC blockchain in real time, allowing you to search and analyze transactions, addresses, hashes and blocks.
Source: mempool.space
The platform also provides other analytical data, such as network hashrate, difficulty of Bitcoin mining, miner remuneration, etc.
Blockchain.com
The service from the popular cryptocurrency exchange Blockchain.com can be used to track transactions and obtain general information about the state of the network of the selected cryptocurrency.
Source: Blockchain.com
The platform allows you to obtain information about transactions in the Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum blockchains.
Blockstream
The Blockstream blockchain browser will help you check the Bitcoin transaction on the OG network and the Liquid sidechain. The report includes the size in bytes and the fee that was paid for the transaction.
Source: Blockstream