What is a Transaction Hash?

Learn what a Transaction Hash is, and the difference between the Tx Hash on the Bitcoin and Safex Blockchain.

What is a Transaction Hash?

Transaction Hash (Tx Hash) is also known as Transaction ID (TxID). A Transaction Hash consists of alphanumeric characters, and it is an ID number for one transaction. Each transaction has a new Tx Hash, and it is unique. This Transaction Hash ''system'' exists on every blockchain. So, one transaction on the Bitcoin blockchain would have its own Tx Hash, as well as one transaction on Ethereum or Safex blockchain. This unique identifier is a long string of letters and numbers that is used to identify a specific transaction on the blockchain.

For example, a Bitcoin transaction ID could look like this: 18cBEMRxXHqzWWCxZNtU91F5sbUNKhL5PX

A transaction hash of Ethereum looks like this: 0xb89ef0cd182a5d3a9d9366c0b962633078717b2879c39dff5208118c89ee53a7

And a Safex transaction ID could look like this: ec9434c4465cfbb5603fa6d3b867b5a066b246d6339dcd79e74eea31a1f6b333

Tx Hash on transparent blockchains

On the transparent blockchains, all the transaction information is publicly available. On these blockchains, sharing a transaction hash allows anyone to confirm funds were sent from public address A to public address B.

Once a person transfers coins from one address to another, a Tx Hash gets generated. Tx Hash can be used to track the status of a transaction, as well as all other details about it. One can see information such as receiver address, sender address, total amount sent, block height, the date of transfer, fees paid, etc. This Tx Hash is a ‘’key’’ to this information. While it is safe to share the Tx Hash, it does allow people to subsequently look back at all other transactions sent and received from the public address, along with the owner’s wallet balance. This is a drawback to transparent blockchains - a lack of privacy.

To see this information, you should go on some Bitcoin Block Explorer (there are many) and paste your or someone's transaction hash in the provided field. You could see something like this:

Bitcoin Blockchain Transaction Hash
Source: blockchair

Tx Hash on Safex blockchain

Although one-time stealth addresses are used to protect users' privacy, every transaction is publicly visible on the blockchain and can be searched and viewed.

The transaction hash is determined after the wallet brings together the transaction inputs, and the hash is then generated. Each transaction has a specific hash to identify it, but no personal particulars are visible due to the stealth address system.

Not sure what a one-time stealth address is? Then have a read of this.

A transaction hash will reveal among others:

Transaction public key, transaction time stamp information, outputs (number, total - for Cash and Tokens, a decode outputs / prove sending query field, etc. However, the total amount a person has on their Safex Address, previous sendings, and all the history of transactions will stay private.

To see this information for yourself on Safex Block Explorer, you need to first go to your Wallet and copy your Transaction ID (TxID). To do so, log in, go on the settings button, and enter the transaction history:

Safex Wallet Transaction ID

Copy any TxID and paste it into Safex Block Explorer:

Safex Transaction Hash Blockchain Explorer
Source: explore.safex.org

On the Safex blockchain, proving a transaction between two parties is impossible to deduce from the transaction hash, but the Sender can Prove Sending to a Recipient using the block explorer and the txkey generated by the specific wallet application that sent the transaction (currently only with cli wallet - not yet available in any GUI Wallet).

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