How to Read the Bitcoin Blockchain: A Beginner's Guide

Written by Shane Morris | Last Updated: 15 July 2025

The Bitcoin blockchain is a public ledger, meaning anyone, anywhere can view the transactions that take place. A block explorer is a website or tool that allows you to do just that: browse the blockchain. It's like a search engine for Bitcoin, providing a window into the network's activity. Let's explore how to use one, using a popular explorer like mempool.space as an example.

Looking Up a Transaction

Every Bitcoin transaction has a unique ID, called a Transaction ID (TxID). If you send or receive bitcoin, your wallet will show you this ID. You can copy and paste it into the search bar of a block explorer to see all its details.

When you look up a transaction, you'll see:

• Inputs and Outputs: The "from" and "to" of the transaction. It shows which Bitcoin addresses sent the funds (inputs) and which addresses received them (outputs).
• Amount: The total value of bitcoin transferred in the transaction.
• Fee: The amount paid to the miner to include the transaction in a block. Higher fees generally lead to faster confirmation times.
• Confirmations: The number of blocks that have been mined since your transaction was included. As more blocks are added, the transaction becomes more secure and irreversible. Six confirmations is often considered fully secure.

Looking Up a Wallet Address

You can also search for any Bitcoin address. This will show you the total balance of that address and a complete, chronological history of all its incoming and outgoing transactions. This transparency is a core feature of Bitcoin, but it's also why it's described as pseudonymous, not anonymous—if an address is ever linked to your identity, your entire transaction history is public.

Exploring a Block

You can even look up a specific block by its height (its number in the sequence). This will show you all the transactions included in that block, the total fees paid to the miner, the miner who solved it, and other technical details like the timestamp and block size. You can see this in action on our Hub's "Live Blocks Mined" feed!