Glossary
The words an address report uses, in a sentence or two each. Where a guide goes deeper, the entry links to it.
- Address
- A string identifying where a payment is sent, encoding a key or spending script. It starts with 1, 3, bc1q or bc1p, and each format locks coins in its own way. Bitcoin address types.
- Address reuse
- The same address appearing in many transactions. Normal for a published address, and the reason wallets hand out a fresh one for each payment. Address reuse, explained.
- Balance
- The sum of an address's unspent outputs, counted once their transactions are confirmed. It is not a wallet's total. Check a Bitcoin address balance.
- Block
- A batch of transactions added to the chain, about every ten minutes on average. A transaction is confirmed once a block includes it.
- Chain notes
- The observations at the end of an address report: what the chain shows for that address, in one line each. They describe; they do not rate. Chain notes, explained.
- Change output
- The difference a transaction sends back to the payer as a new output, because bitcoin spends whole outputs. Change outputs and where a balance sits.
- Confirmation
- A transaction has one confirmation when a block includes it, and one more for each block added after that. Activity and pending transactions.
- Dust
- An unspent output so small that the fee to spend it would be more than it holds. It still belongs to the address. Small outputs, also called dust.
- Fee
- The difference between a transaction's input and output amounts, paid to the miner. Wallets commonly estimate it from the virtual size and chosen fee rate, quoted in satoshis per virtual byte; it is not a percentage of the amount sent.
- Historical value
- What a balance was worth on past dates, estimated from one market price per day. Not what anyone paid. Historical value of an address.
- Mempool
- A node's local pool of unconfirmed transactions it has accepted. Nodes can hold different transactions; there is no single network-wide queue. Why a balance can show zero.
- Private key
- A secret used to authorize spending under an address's conditions. It is not part of the address and is not published on the chain. Keep it private; an address lookup does not need it. Sharing a Bitcoin address.
- Public label
- A name that third-party data attaches to a well-known address. Shown as a note for information; not a verified attribution. Chain notes, explained.
- Satoshi (sat)
- The smallest unit of bitcoin: one hundred-millionth of a bitcoin. One bitcoin is 100,000,000 satoshis. Satoshis, BTC and dollars.
- Since
- The earliest activity or positive balance available to the report, with exact chain anchors for some addresses. Limited history may miss an earlier payment. It is not a key or wallet creation date. When an address was first used.
- Transaction
- A record that spends outputs and creates new ones, identified by a transaction ID. It may be unconfirmed; confirmed transactions are recorded in the chain.
- Unconfirmed (pending)
- A transaction not yet included in a block. Nodes can differ in whether they have it. The report excludes unconfirmed amounts from its balance and may show a Pending note for a nonzero net amount. Why a balance can show zero.
- Unspent output (UTXO)
- A piece of bitcoin an address holds: an output of an earlier transaction that has not been spent. A balance is the sum of them. What an unspent output is.
- Wallet
- Software that holds keys and manages many addresses as one total. A single address is one part of it. One address is not a whole wallet.
- Watch-only
- Following addresses without holding their keys: reading balances and transactions, never spending. Looking up an address here is watch-only. Watch a Bitcoin address.
Common questions
Why do other sites use different words?
Bitcoin has one vocabulary on the chain and several in wallets and explorers. Here, coin means an unspent output, or UTXO. Pending usually means unconfirmed; in a mempool means a particular node currently holds the transaction. The definitions here say which.
Where do these terms appear in a report?
Balance, Since and Txs sit under the address. The unspent outputs and transactions have their own lists. The Chain notes at the end use the rest.
Is this list complete?
It covers what a report shows. Terms the report does not use, such as mining or the halving, are left out on purpose.