How Transactions Are Tracked on the Bitcoin Network

Like any other cryptocurrency, bitcoin is based on the blockchain. Blockchain is a chain of blocks that store data about each financial transaction. It works as follows.

• The user generates a request to conduct a transaction, after which a block is generated.

• Network participants (miners) confirm this block, after which it is added to the blockchain.

• After confirming and adding a block, the transaction is completed, and the funds are credited to the recipient's wallet.

The block stores all the necessary information about the transaction – from which wallet the payment was made to which wallet, what amount, time, etc. The peculiarity of the blockchain is that all the information that is stored in it cannot be deleted or changed. This is important because, in this way, it is possible to verify the hash of the transaction.

It is important to know that a bitcoin transaction consists of keys. There are two of them – open and closed ones.

The public key is actually the address of the bitcoin wallet. This is a character set that works de facto as an account number. To receive a transfer, you send the public key to the user who intends to make a transaction. They enter the address, and the cryptocurrency is transferred to it.

A private key is a unique key that is used to confirm a transaction. If you are sending crypto to anyone, you must use this key. You shouldn't disclose it to anyone, as this will let them transfer money from your account.

It is recommended to make a copy of all keys. Since they are a random collection of letters and numbers, it is best to write down the information on a piece of paper. It is not recommended to store data on a computer, as there is a risk of computer hacking and information theft.

The key question is, is bitcoin traceable? The answer is yes; it is indeed possible to track the transaction. All data is stored on the blockchain and cannot be removed from there. However, in order to obtain information on transactions, special tools are needed that will allow you to see the information in the blockchain. If you need to get basic data, you can use services such as:

• Block Explorer.

• OXT.

• Insight.

• Blockchain.com and others.

Thanks to these tools, you will be able to monitor wallets. In particular, you can find out which wallet transferred money, where it was transferred, and when the transaction was made.

You can trace a bitcoin transaction, but you won't know the sender's name since such information is not stored on the network. Bitcoin does not have accounts; that is, it is impossible to find out the exact name of the sender or recipient.

The standard confirmation time for financial transactions in the Bitcoin network is 10 minutes. However, often users are faced with the problem that the transaction is processed for a very long time. Sometimes such operations can remain unconfirmed for more than an hour. The reasons for this are quite simple.

A commission is paid for each transfer. Transactions are confirmed by miners, and for this work, they receive a reward – a certain amount of coins, which compensates for their expenses. There are a lot of financial transactions in the Bitcoin network, so they are divided by priority. The higher the commission for a particular transaction, the faster the confirmation process will be for it.

New transactions are created on the network all the time, and many of them can have higher fees. As a result, there is a risk that the operation will freeze for several days, after which the funds will be returned to the sender. However, the problem with confirmation is quite solvable.

If the operation does not go through for a long time, look again at its status. If you see that it is not confirmed, you can take steps to speed it up. There are three main methods that will help speed up the processing procedure.

• Replace-by-fee. The method is available for several wallets, such as Bitcoin Core or Electrum. The bottom line is that a transaction with a low commission can be replaced with a transaction with a high commission. Wallets have a special section that allows you to increase the commission. Even a few Satoshi can increase the priority of the operation. You can also change the target. For example, specify "up to 10 blocks". In this case, your transaction will be processed for up to approximately 100 minutes. You can check the status after the change in the browser.

• Sending a second transaction with a double fee. This method is universal and suitable for any cryptocurrency wallet. Its essence is to create another transaction, along with the one that "is held." Due to the size of the commission, miners will be interested in processing it. However, they will have to process both of your transactions. Both transactions will fall into the same block and will be confirmed at the same time.

• Creating a new wallet in Electrum. Yes, you can also speed up a transaction on the Bitcoin network by creating another wallet. The method is suitable for those who do not use Electrum and cannot use the two methods described above. To do this, you need to register another repository using a 12-word seed phrase. After that, you will get access to all assets and can use them in a convenient way.

Speeding up a transaction will certainly make the transaction more expensive, but it will increase the chances that the miners will still process it.