September 6, 2021
4 mins read

How to search for transactions on the blockchain

blockchain
Photo by RODNAE Productions on Pexels.com

When a transaction is made on the blockchain, it is digitally recorded. It is added to an existing chain made up of blocks. The transaction will be in one of those blocks. All transactions that have been made throughout history are documented. It is a way to show the traceability of any operation that is carried out. Therefore, it is possible to know and track money, where it goes from and where it comes from on the blockchain.

The engine of the blockchain

Block explorers provide a visually appealing and intuitive way to navigate a cryptocurrency’s blockchain. The blockchain.com website’s block explorer was launched in August 2011. It started as a way for anyone to study bitcoin transactions, along with a variety of useful graphs and statistics about activity on the network.

To search for a bitcoin transaction, users can visit https://www.blockchain.com/explorer  and use the search bar at the top right to learn more about a particular bitcoin address, transaction hash, or block number by entering it into the search field.

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Hash of a transaction

The first variable we see in a transaction is the hash. The hash name serves to identify a transaction and is a very important cryptographic function in the computer world. Hash functions allow data to be encoded, resulting in a single string of characters. No matter how much data is encoded, you will always get the same length. They serve to ensure the authenticity of data, securely store passwords, and sign electronic documents.

Hash functions are widely used in blockchain technology to add security to them. Bitcoin is a clear example of how hashes can be used to make cryptocurrencytechnology possible.

Transaction example

An example of a transaction would be this: transaction. In the address bar comes the url of the domain and then /btc/tx/, which could be translated as the bitcoin folder(btc)and then the tx (transaction) subfolder   and then the hash is added to the address. Therefore, the hash identifies that web address and demonstrates its importance.

Transaction Summary

In this section comes relevant information about the transaction. It reports when it was transmitted to the bitcoin network. How many confirmations on the network you have (how many miners have accepted that transaction). How many bitcoins were sent, from which wallet to which wallet or wallets as can be seen in Fig. 1.

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Figure 1. Bitcoin transaction summary

Transaction Details

Subsequently, comes the details of the transaction. In the details comes the hash address, which as we have said is also in the address bar. What the status is, this particular transaction has been confirmed to the network and added to a block. Which block?. Well, it has been included in block 416731.

blockchain
Figure 2. Details of a bitcoin transaction

This block was mined on June 17, 2016 and the reward was obtained by the last miner or miners who added the block to the blockchain chain, in this case it was BTCC Pool. The miner/miners of this block won a total reward of 25.00000000 BTC (1,089,509.50 €).

Cryptocurrency wallets on the blockchain

The most important part in the world of cryptocurrencies is the wallet, which is so to speak, like the current account code of a bank account. It must be said that getting a wallet is very simple. Today there are thousands of websites that offer them with the claim that you start making money in cryptocurrencies from today. But this is not so simple.

A wallet, unless you were sent money in cryptocurrencies from another wallet, starts with a balance of zero. You can add balance to that wallet yourself by transferring from your bank to that wallet. That’s where companies that encourage you to have a bitcoin wallet get money. You are free to do so, but keep in mind that maybe you will get a cryptocurrency, but you will not make use of it in the near future.

Therefore, all miners have a wallet, where they want to be sent the money from a block they have finished. You can have a wallet yourself to move money on the blockchain. But also, cybercriminals have a wallet where they request that illicitly earned money be sent.

Detect a cybercriminal’s wallet

As mentioned, you can follow the money trail on the blockchain. Therefore, sometimes you can start a detective task and look for which wallet has received money and where you sent that money, if at all.

It should be said that the blockchain keeps a record of transactions but does not inform the reason for that movement. That is, if you want to buy a Tesla car and pay for it in bitcoins, the blockchain will be the transaction data but you will not be able to know what the use of that money has been.

How to search for a reported wallet of the blockchain

There is a website where you can report bitcoin wallets that perform illegal actions. An example would be this reported account. This time the wallet address itself is used to register the account, so it comes in the url of the page, 15GWKdT8e1o6GcDTZMQZRiZng2Q6dLX8Aw.

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Figure 3. Report account

You can see the reason for the negative reports. In most cases, and for this wallet, it seems that it is a wallet that is used for sextorsion, spam campaigns and ransomware.

To find the wallet on the blockchain what you have to do is copy the address and paste it into the URL of the blockchain or follow the link that puts View adress onblockchain.info. In this case, in the address bar will come the address of the wallet but not the hash of a transaction.

Summary

The blockchain, better known as blockchain is the way to show the traceability of a wallet of bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies. When looking for a wallet it can be done in two ways: through the hash of a transaction and through the address of a wallet.

All transactions made throughout the history of blockchain can be traced. In fact, you can change the following url, https://www.blockchain.com/btc/block/x, replacing the x by the value you want to locate a block. For example, the first block added to the chain would have this address: https://www.blockchain.com/btc/block/1.

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Avelino Dominguez

👨🏻‍🔬 Biologist 👨🏻‍🎓 Teacher 👨🏻‍💻 Technologist 📊 Statistician 🕸 #SEO #SocialNetwork #Web #Data ♟Chess 🐙 Galician

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