By the end of this lesson you’ll be able to follow one transaction from the moment you press send to the moment nobody can take it back, say what a confirmation is worth on each network, and explain why the order of transactions inside a block is worth money to someone.
Pressing send
Your wallet builds a transaction: who pays, who receives, how much, and a fee. It signs it with your private key and hands it to nodes it knows. Each node checks the signature and the rules, and if the transaction passes, passes it on.
Nothing has happened to the ledger yet. Your transaction is in the waiting room.
Signed
By your wallet
↓
Waiting
In the mempool
↓
In a block
One confirmation
↓
Buried
More blocks on top
↓
Final
By rule on Ethereum, by probability on Bitcoin
One transaction, from send to final
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