Depending on the type of crypto wallet you use, when you send or receive Bitcoin (BTC), you will notice a transaction ID that comes along with every transaction.
A transaction ID is sometimes referred to as a transaction hash or TXID.
It applies to Bitcoin and most cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin. Many cryptos use transaction ID as a unique identifier to record each transaction.
This article will focus on the Bitcoin Transaction ID.
What is a Bitcoin Transaction ID?
A Bitcoin transaction ID is a standardized 64 hexadecimal characters long string, and it contains the details of the transaction that will be reflected on the public blockchain, i.e. both the sender/s and receiver/s wallet addresses, the amount of BTC transacted, the date & timestamp of the transaction in UTC-0 timezone and the miner fees involved.
The other party may ask you for the transaction ID when you send BTC to someone.
Why?
The other party may be receiving transactions from other people simultaneously, and it is a good practice to verify which transaction belongs to you and if you had sent your BTC over.
An example of a transaction ID is shown below;
c17ea5a5f4f2b6048e79b31184dc1a782dbf608457f9c444c051c9ab245378c0Anyone can use the transaction ID to search for the transaction details through the use of free blockchain explorers tools such as BlockStream.
Where can I find the Transaction ID?
For every transaction, there will be a unique transaction ID. This is important to uniquely identify each transaction and record all the essential details such as date & time stamp, wallet addresses, and amount transacted.
Using a blockchain explorer
If the Bitcoin transaction has been completed, you can search for it publicly using any Blockchain explorer tools such as Blockchain.com and BlockChair.
You can search using the wallet address, the transaction ID or the block height.
BlockChair, for example, allows you to search universally across 19 different types of blockchains such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and many others.
Below are some of the blockchain explorers for other cryptocurrencies;
- EtherScan (for Ethereum)
- XRPScan (for Ripple)
- BlockCypher (for Litecoin)
Using a Software Wallet
Suppose you are using a software wallet like Exodus. In that case, you can find your Transaction ID under the <Wallet> main menu, select your cryptocurrency type and under the <Activity> tab, you will find your TXID displayed below.
Using a cryptocurrency exchange
Suppose you are using a crypto exchange like Binance. In that case, you can easily find your Transaction ID by clicking on [Wallet], selecting [Overview] from the drop-down menu and clicking on [Transaction History]. You will see your transaction ID under the [TxID] column.
How useful can a Transaction ID be?
These are the few ways TXID can assist you;
Wrongful Transaction
When you happen to send crypto funds wrongly to the wrong recipient or even to the wrong blockchain, you can sometimes rely on the transaction ID to help you. Of course, it is not guaranteed to recover our funds, but you can use the TXID to start contacting the crypto platform, e.g. the crypto exchange you are using.
Identify A Transaction
TXID is useful to uniquely identify a single transaction, even if there are several similar transactions, e.g. the same amount of crypto, from the same sender or receiver, etc.
Prove A Transaction
We can use the TXID to check against the free blockchain explorers to tell whether one is a confirmed or unconfirmed transaction. The blockchain database will reflect the latest status of every pending and completed transaction.
