Bitcoin get transaction by address

The Bitcoin.com Company Blog

How To Find Any Bitcoin Transaction On The Blockchain 🔍

March 27, 2019 by Bitcoin.com

Wondering, “Where’s my Bitcoin?” Our free Block Explorer tool can help you track down specific transactions.

The Bitcoin.com Block Explorer quite literally lets you explore both the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin Core (BTC) blockchains.

Similar to a search engine, you can use it to search for specific blocks, transactions, and even addresses.

The Bitcoin.com Block Explorer summarizes transaction confirmations, block number, and more.

How do you use Block Explorer to find transaction details?

1. Select the transaction within your wallet

Open up your digital wallet and select the transaction you’d like to learn more about. Most software wallets and crypto exchanges clearly list your recent transactions for you, making them easy to find.

2. Find the unique transaction ID

Every Bitcoin transaction comes with its own transaction ID (TXID), a string of letters and numbers that makes it unique. The Bitcoin.com wallet conveniently provides the TXID for you, as do some other wallets and exchanges.

3. View on Block Explorer

If you’re using the Bitcoin.com wallet, simply click ‘view on blockchain’ and you’ll be taken to the corresponding page on Block Explorer. Otherwise, cut and paste the transaction ID and search for it manually within Block Explorer.

The Bitcoin.com wallet has a built-in button for viewing a TXID

Why might you need a transaction ID?

You might need to track down a transaction ID for various reasons. Two of the most common include:

Delayed transactions

If you’re worried about a delay, you can use Block Explorer to view your transaction. If it appears there, you can rest assured that your transaction is in progress.

Proof of sending

Sometimes a recipient may ask you to send a transaction ID to verify you’ve sent Bitcoin to them. This TXID provides irrefutable proof of a successful transfer.

Struggling to find the transaction ID?

Not all wallets and exchanges provide the TXID for you. However, you can still find it yourself.

Start by locating the address you sent the Bitcoin to and paste this into the Block Explorer search bar. The result will show all incoming and outgoing transactions specific to that address.

As such, there’s often more than one transaction listed. To find the TXID you’re looking for, check figures like date, time, and amount sent so you can be sure its the right transaction.

Searching wallet addresses manually on Block Explorer is another way to find TXIDs

What if your transaction isn’t found on Block Explorer?

Firstly, don’t panic. This is one of the most common questions we get asked and there’s usually a simple explanation.

It’s possible that you’ve searched the wrong blockchain. For instance, if you’re looking for a BCH TXID but you’ve searched on the BTC section of a typical Block Explorer, no results will be found.

To prevent confusion, the Bitcoin.com Block Explorer is clever enough to redirect you when this happens: you’ll be automatically sent to the right page after a few seconds.

The Bitcoin.com Block Explorer covers both Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin Core (BTC).

If you’re still struggling to find your transaction, it could be that the TXID is simply incorrect.

Particularly if you’ve been sending it back and forth in various messengers used by other people, errors can occur and, since Block Explorers are very precise, even one tiny mistake will return no results.

It’s most likely that the TXID was either not copied in full or, potentially, it may not be a transaction at all (i.e. just a randomized set of digits and letters instead).

In the case of the latter, this could mean somebody is trying to prove they’ve sent you Bitcoin when in fact they haven’t—so proceed with caution.

What if your transaction has been sent to the wrong address?

Sometimes, transactions can be sent to the wrong address (i.e. due to a typo) or to the wrong blockchain entirely. Unfortunately, both cases are difficult to resolve.

Occasionally, crypto exchanges will try to help you if you’ve made a mistake when sending. Since these exchanges are centralized, they can technically control the cryptocurrency moving in and out of wallets, so they could potentially reverse a transaction for you.

However, if you’re not using an exchange, getting your coins back is impossible. Bitcoin is decentralized by design meaning nobody can undo transactions you make.

Plus, wallets are not tied to anybody’s identity, so you can’t simply reach out to the recipient and ask them to kindly return your funds.

To prevent this from ever happening to you, always double check addresses before sending any Bitcoin.

What if your TXID exists but your Bitcoin hasn’t arrived?

Occasionally, transactions take more time to send. In this case, you’ll see that the TXID shows up on Block Explorer but the Bitcoin has yet to arrive in the recipient’s wallet.

There’s no reason to worry! Once a transaction appears on the Block Explorer, you know it will eventually complete. But why do Bitcoin transactions sometimes get delayed?

The Bitcoin Core (BTC) network experienced severe transaction delays in 2017. See Charts.Bitcoin.com for more.

Different cryptocurrencies

Regular Bitcoin Cash (BCH) transactions typically transact in seconds and, for larger amounts, they usually complete within an hour. However, Bitcoin Core (BTC) transactions have been known to take several days to complete when the network is busy.

Exchange requirements

Crypto exchanges have different requirements when it comes to how many confirmations they require. Until this number has been reached, you won’t see the Bitcoin in your wallet. You can check how many confirmations your exchange requires by reading their website.

Blockchain maintenance

Occasionally, blockchains undergo planned maintenance. During this time, transactions will be delayed as most wallets and exchanges temporarily freeze transfers. You’ll get advance notice of this and all transactions will complete once the maintenance is finished.

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How to trace Bitcoin transactions or address?

In the early days, criminals used Bitcoin as a safe haven, thinking Bitcoin is anonymous, and transactions can’t be traced. However, today, sophisticated blockchain analysis softwares can trace bitcoin transactions to identify criminal activities on the blockchain.

Table of Contents

Is Bitcoin anonymous?

No, Bitcoin is not anonymous. Bitcoin is pseudonymous. In other words, Bitcoin does not store any real-world identities. However, it is possible to link real-world identities to bitcoin addresses by using bitcoin analysis softwares.

What makes Bitcoin traceable?

Today, bitcoin blockchain confirms

10 million transactions every month. All these transactions are visible on the bitcoin blockchain. However, the blockchain only store addresses, public keys, and not real-world identities. Therefore, Virtual asset service providers (VASP) are the primary way to link real-world identities with bitcoin transactions. For example, VASPs such as Exchanges, wallets, custodians provide cryptocurrency services to retail users and businesses. Most of these services implement KYC (Know-your-customer) solutions. Therefore, linking real-world identity with bitcoin addresses and transactions.

How to trace Bitcoin transactions?

Standard blockchain explorers are not suitable for tracking Bitcoin transactions efficiently. For example, if a criminal is using hundreds of intermediate wallets, it can take days to track and map all those transactions.

However, our Coinpath® technology is built to trace blockchain transactions efficiently. It uses advanced algorithms to track money flow on the blockchain. In addition, our Bitquery explorer provides a money flow graph, which is a visualization tool for investigating bitcoin transactions.

Let’s see an example on how to trace bitcoin transactions using Coinpath® technology.

Recently, a Twitter hacker took the whole world by surprise when he tweeted giveaway tweets from hundreds of world leaders and influencers’ accounts.

The bitcoin address mentioned here belongs to the hacker —bc1qxy2kgdygjrsqtzq2n0yrf2493p83kkfjhx0wlh

To identify the real identity of the hacker, we will start our investigation by finding all the transactions related to the above bitcoin address. Our Coinpath® APIs give you all the source and destination addresses that sent or received transactions from any bitcoin address.

For example, in this case, the image below shows the top 10 addresses, which received bitcoins from the hacker’s address.

As we can see, a Binance exchange wallet received the transaction from the hacker’s address. However, the hacker used multiple intermediate wallets before sending money to the Binance wallet.

Note: In this case, using the Binance KYC solution, we can identify who received this money and conduct further investigation.

It would have been taken hours to trace bitcoin transactions using a standard explorer because on every layer involves multiple intermediate wallets. However, our Coinpath® technology provides this information in a single API call. Similarly, you can trace bitcoin address which sent money to the hacker’s wallet. However, in this case, the scammer was asking bitcoins publically, therefore determining who sent the money to this address is not useful because hundreds of victims sent money to the hacker.

To learn more about Twitter hack, read our complete investigation here.

Money flow graph

Visual tools are beneficial when investigating addresses and transactions. Using Coinpath® technology, anyone can build visual tools to understand the money flow. We have built one on our Bitquery explorer. You can visualize all the incoming and outgoing transactions from the hacker’s address here..

Bitcoin address classification

Coinpath® Bitcoin addresses classification technology provides ways to identify patterns on the blockchains. For example, you can determine if an exchange owns a specific address by looking at the number of transactions it performs every day and the transaction amount. Usually, these patterns create different types of clusters. By analyzing these clusters, you can identify payment services, custodians, and other types of virtual asset service providers.

Now, if you are able to identify the crypto service, you can investigate the identity of every address interacting with that crypto service if it has implemented KYC solutions.

Tracing Bitcoin transactions through VASP is a much easier and the backbone of many crypto compliance solutions.

Challenges in tracing Bitcoin transactions

The bitcoin blockchain is a database of alphanumeric strings and numbers. It does not contain any real-world identity. Therefore, it presents some challenges when it comes to identifying the transactions.

• Self custody and Intermediate wallets — It is effortless to create thousands of wallets on the bitcoin blockchain and self-custody your funds. As we discussed in our last blog, cryptocurrency money laundering, criminals create intermediate wallets and process funds through these intermediaries to remove the source identity.
• Mixers — Services like mixers are build to enhance privacy. However, criminals use them to mix funds, which creates problems when tracing bitcoin transactions.
• Unregulated crypto service (VASP) — Bitcoin is a universal digital currency enabled by a public blockchain, and anyone can create services on top of it. Many countries do not enforce proper KYC/AML laws to crypto services (VASPs). Therefore, criminals process illicit funds through these services and convert them into fiat.

Use cases of Bitcoin transactions tracing

One of the most critical use cases of tracking Bitcoin transactions is in preventing bitcoin money laundering and identifying criminal activities. Law enforcement authorities all over the world use sophisticated tracing and blockchain analysis tools to prevent money laundering activities.

User privacy

Privacy is a human right established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (article 12). Therefore, preserving the user’s privacy should be the utmost priority for any business and enforcement agencies.

In 2019, a survey revealed that more than 11% of Americans own Bitcoin. Millions of users use cryptocurrencies for commercial purposes every day. Therefore, it is critical that businesses understand the value of user’s privacy when deploying bitcoin compliance solutions and tracing technologies.

If you are an individual who is concerned with your economic privacy, you should use proper tools and services when using cryptocurrencies.

Wrapping up

Protecting user privacy and enabling commercial activity is not a zero-sum game. It is critical for cryptocurrency adoption, that law authorities are able to identify criminal activities on the blockchain. Otherwise, we will see sweeping legislation, prohibiting all commercial activities related to cryptocurrencies.

However, users in the crypto space are more aware of privacy problems and inventing privacy-focused solutions every day, which makes tracing blockchain transactions an ongoing challenge for law-enforcement agencies worldwide.

About Coinpath®

Coinpath® APIs provide blockchain money flow analysis for more than 24 blockchains. With Coinpath’s APIs, you can monitor blockchain transactions, investigate crypto crimes such as bitcoin money laundering, and create crypto forensics tools. Read this to get started with Coinpath®.

If you have any questions about Coinpath®, ask them on our Telegram channel or email us at hello@bitquery.io. Also, subscribe to our newsletter below, we will keep you updated with the latest in the cryptocurrency world.

Coinpath® is a Bitquery product. Bitquery is a set of software tools that parse, index, access, search, and use information across blockchain networks in a unified way.

About Bitquery

Bitquery is a set of software tools that parse, index, access, search, and use information across blockchain networks in a unified way. Our products are:

• Coinpath® APIs provide blockchain money flow analysis for more than 24 blockchains. With Coinpath’s APIs, you can monitor blockchain transactions, investigate crypto crimes such as bitcoin money laundering, and create crypto forensics tools. Read this to get started with Coinpath®.

• Digital Assets API provides index information related to all major cryptocurrencies, coins, and tokens.

• DEX API provides real-time deposits and transactions, trades, and other related data on different DEX protocols like Uniswap, Kyber Network, Airswap, Matching Network, etc.

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