What you can look up
- An address. Returns its balance, the number of transactions and the full list of them. Addresses start with
1,3orbc1. - A transaction ID (64 hexadecimal characters). Returns inputs, outputs, amounts, fee, size and how many blocks have confirmed it.
- A block height or block hash. Returns the block's time, the number of transactions it contains, its size and the mining pool that found it.
Reading an address result
- Balance is the sum of unspent outputs. Bitcoin does not keep a running account balance; it is computed from the outputs that have not been spent yet.
- Received and sent totals are lifetime sums. An address that shows a large received total and a zero balance has simply been emptied.
- Confirmations count how many blocks have been mined on top of the block containing a transaction. Zero means it is still in the mempool, waiting.
- Counterparty addresses in a transaction are just other outputs. Wallets often send change back to a new address of their own, which looks like a payment to a stranger.
Fees and the mempool
Transactions that have been broadcast but not yet mined wait in the mempool. Miners prefer transactions paying a higher fee per virtual byte (sat/vB), so during busy periods low-fee transactions wait longer. BTC Mate's Explorer shows the current mempool size, the number of unconfirmed transactions, recommended fee levels and the latest blocks, which is useful context when a payment to your tracked address shows zero confirmations.
Lookup vs. tracking
A lookup answers a question once. Tracking keeps the answer current and adds meaning: a label, a value in your currency, a history chart and estimated performance. In BTC Mate both live in the same app: look up an address in the Explorer, and add the ones you want to keep watching as tracked addresses. From there it appears in the Overview and in the Insights analysis. More about address tracking.
Privacy of lookups
Looking up an address sends that address to a blockchain data provider. The provider learns that someone at your IP address was interested in it. That is the same trade-off as using any block explorer website, and it is described in the Privacy Policy. No private key is ever involved in a lookup, so the funds at the address are unaffected.
Beyond addresses: network insights
The same public data that answers a lookup also describes the network as a whole. BTC Mate's Insights tab shows block height, hashrate, difficulty and the next adjustment, average block time, circulating supply, and an interactive globe of reachable Bitcoin nodes with a timeline from 2009 to today. It is meant for understanding the system your coins live in, not just checking on them.