BitcoinMadeClear

How can you follow a Bitcoin payment?

A payment is approved, shared with the network and checked before a block can record it. A waiting payment and a confirmed payment are different states.

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What will you learn?

  • Distinguish waiting from confirmed.
  • Separate network fees, service charges and refunds.
How can you follow a Bitcoin payment?Approved and shared: Not necessarily confirmed. Included in a block: Has a confirmation. Later blocks: Add further confirmations.Approved and sharedNot necessarily confirmedIncluded in a blockHas a confirmationLater blocksAdd further confirmations
Approved and shared: Not necessarily confirmed. Included in a block: Has a confirmation. Later blocks: Add further confirmations.

What is the idea?

The recipient supplies a destination for the intended asset and network. The sender reviews the destination, amount and fee before approving. A wallet can prepare this information, but a screen cannot know whether every story behind a payment is honest.

After approval, payment information is shared. A miner can include the valid payment in a proposed block. When the accepted history includes it, it has a confirmation. Later blocks add further confirmations.

Fees help pay miners to include transactions. Demand for block space can change, so a fee estimate is not a guaranteed deadline. An operator may charge a separate service fee, and its processing delay is not the same as waiting for a block.

A confirmed payment has no central undo button. A willing recipient can send a new payment back as a refund. That new payment does not erase the original from the history.

Can you picture an example?

Imagine a wallet shows a payment as waiting while the recipient asks whether it is complete. Explain that it has been seen but is not yet in a block. Do not promise an exact arrival time from a fee estimate.

What do you remember?

Choose an answer for each question, then check your answers. You can try again. Your choices are not sent or stored by the quiz.

1. When does a payment have a confirmation?
2. Does a higher fee guarantee a deadline?
3. Is a service charge always the network fee?
4. What is a refund?
5. Can the network judge whether a payment story is honest?

Read the answers and explanations
  1. When included in a block. A confirmation means the payment has been included in a block.
  2. No. A fee can encourage inclusion without guaranteeing a time.
  3. No. An operator can charge separately from the network transaction fee.
  4. A new payment back. The original remains in the history when a recipient sends a refund.
  5. No. Rule checks do not establish that a person's story is true.
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