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Degrees of Satoshi · Learn with evidence

Follow a Transaction

Step through signing, submission, inclusion, confirmation or finality, and settlement.

Choose a journey

These are explanations, not real transactions. No wallet, account or live network request is needed.

Bitcoin payment: 0.01 BTC

Ordinary on-chain Bitcoin payment; illustrative fee of 1,000 satoshis. No Lightning or custody service.

1. Sign

Participants: Sender and wallet.

The wallet spends a 0.02 BTC input, sends 0.01 BTC to the recipient and returns 0.00999 BTC as change. The remaining 0.00001 BTC is the fee. Signing does not put the payment on-chain.

What is established: Authorization of the chosen transaction.

Fees: 1,000 satoshis proposed, not yet paid in a confirmed block.

Evidence: Bitcoin developer guide: transactions

2. Submit

Participants: Wallet and peer nodes.

Peers independently validate and may relay the transaction. Mempools differ. A transaction can wait, be evicted, or conflict with another spend; a broadcast acknowledgement is not a confirmation.

What is established: Some nodes have received the transaction.

Fees: No separate broadcast charge assumed.

Evidence: Bitcoin developer guide: transactions · Bitcoin developer guide: payment processing

3. Include

Participants: Miner and validating nodes.

A miner places the payment in a block. Nodes check its rules and proof of work. The input becomes spent and the new outputs enter the UTXO set in that chain; a reorganization remains possible.

What is established: One confirmation in the observed valid chain.

Fees: The transaction fee is collected through the block’s coinbase transaction.

Evidence: Bitcoin developer guide: transactions · Bitcoin developer guide: payment processing

4. Confirm

Participants: Miners, nodes and recipient.

Each later block increases confirmation depth. Bitcoin offers probabilistic settlement, not a fixed finality checkpoint. Six confirmations means the inclusion block plus five successors; suitable waiting policies depend on risk.

What is established: More accumulated work after inclusion.

Fees: Waiting adds no fee to this payment.

Evidence: Bitcoin developer guide: payment processing

5. Settle

Participants: Recipient or receiving service.

The recipient treats the payment as settled after its chosen confirmation threshold. This is a risk decision, not a proof of identity or a guarantee against all reorganizations. A custodial service may separately delay crediting.

What is established: The recipient’s acceptance policy is met.

Fees: Any later spend is a new transaction with its own fee.

Evidence: Bitcoin developer guide: payment processing

Related concepts: what is a utxo · bitcoin confirmations · bitcoin transaction fees and mempool.

ETH transfer: 0.1 ETH

Ethereum mainnet transfer between ordinary accounts with no delegated code. Illustrative 21,000 gas at 12 gwei, not a live quote.

1. Sign

Participants: Sender and wallet.

The sender signs a 0.1 ETH transfer with the next nonce. The chain ID helps separate networks. Fee caps bound willingness to pay; the displayed maximum is not necessarily the fee charged.

What is established: Authorization for chain, recipient, value, nonce and fee bounds.

Fees: Assumed effective gas price: 12 gwei.

Evidence: Ethereum: transactions

2. Submit

Participants: Wallet, RPC service and peers.

An RPC response can return a transaction hash while the transfer is still pending. Nodes check validity and relay according to their policies. An unavailable RPC service does not prove the chain is unavailable.

What is established: Submission to a node.

Fees: The wallet needs ETH for value plus the permitted gas cost.

Evidence: Ethereum: transactions

3. Include

Participants: Block proposer and validating nodes.

Successful execution debits the sender and credits the recipient. In this simple scenario, 21,000 × 12 gwei = 0.000252 ETH, making the total debit 0.100252 ETH. Calls involving code can consume more gas.

What is established: Execution in the observed block.

Fees: Base fee is burned; priority fee goes to the block fee recipient.

Evidence: Ethereum: transactions · Ethereum: proof of stake

4. Finalize

Participants: Ethereum validators.

Inclusion and finality are different stages. Validators vote on checkpoints; finalized history has stronger protection than the current head. Finality can stall and is not an unconditional wall-clock promise.

What is established: Consensus finality under proof-of-stake assumptions.

Fees: No new transfer fee is charged while waiting.

Evidence: Ethereum: proof of stake

5. Settle

Participants: Recipient or application.

The ETH transfer has settled on Ethereum under its consensus assumptions. It does not prove a bank payment, delivery of goods, or the identity behind an account. Those are separate agreements.

What is established: The application accepts the finalized transfer.

Fees: No off-chain service charge is modeled.

Evidence: Ethereum: transactions · Ethereum: proof of stake

Related concepts: ethereum transactions and nonces · ethereum gas fees · ethereum proof of stake finality.

ERC-20 stablecoin transfer: 25 illustrative USD tokens

Direct ERC-20 transfer on Ethereum, using a fictional six-decimal token. Not a live issuer quote or a fiat redemption.

1. Sign

Participants: Sender and wallet.

The transaction targets the token contract and calls transfer(recipient, 25000000). Six decimals makes that 25 tokens. A token symbol alone cannot identify the correct asset. Direct transfer does not require a separate spender approval.

What is established: Authorization of a call to a specific token contract.

Fees: Gas is paid in ETH in this scenario, not deducted as USD tokens.

Evidence: ERC-20 specification · Ethereum: transactions

2. Submit

Participants: RPC service and Ethereum peers.

The sender submits the signed call. A transaction hash does not establish that the contract accepted it. Nonce ordering, ETH gas balance, token balance and the token’s own rules can affect execution.

What is established: A pending contract-call transaction.

Fees: The wallet’s gas estimate is an estimate, not a promise.

Evidence: Ethereum: transactions · ERC-20 specification

3. Include

Participants: Block proposer, nodes and token contract.

Check receipt success and the intended contract’s balance change and Transfer event. An included failed transaction can consume gas without transferring tokens. Contract-specific restrictions can still prevent a transfer.

What is established: An execution receipt and resulting token state.

Fees: Illustration only: 50,000 gas × 12 gwei = 0.0006 ETH.

Evidence: Ethereum: transactions · ERC-20 specification

4. Finalize

Participants: Ethereum validators.

The token transaction follows Ethereum’s consensus finality. Finalizing its ledger update does not establish the token’s backing, current market price, or the holder’s eligibility to redeem it.

What is established: Finality of the block containing the execution.

Fees: Waiting for finality does not improve the token’s backing.

Evidence: Ethereum: proof of stake · ERC-20 specification · Circle USDC terms: holding and redemption

5. Settle

Participants: Recipient and, separately, any issuer.

The example ends with 25 tokens in the recipient’s account. Obtaining bank money is a separate redemption or sale with its own eligibility, fees and timing. Inspect the linked stablecoin evidence before equating the two.

What is established: The recipient holds tokens on this chain.

Fees: No redemption or exchange fees are included.

Evidence: ERC-20 specification · Circle USDC terms: holding and redemption

Related concepts: erc 20 tokens · stablecoin transfer vs redemption · stablecoin freezes issuer control.

Rollup transfer: 0.1 ETH on an OP Stack rollup

Standard Ethereum-data OP Stack configuration, as documented on 2 October 2026. Other rollups and alternative data-availability modes differ.

1. Sign

Participants: Sender and L2 wallet.

Sign for the rollup’s chain ID and recipient. This example moves existing L2 ETH, without making a deposit or withdrawal.

What is established: Authorization on the selected L2.

Fees: Execution, Ethereum data and applicable operator fees; no fixed live quote.

Evidence: Ethereum: transactions · OP Mainnet transaction fees

2. Submit

Participants: RPC and sequencer.

Submission is not inclusion. Availability and ordering initially depend on the sequencer and network configuration.

What is established: The sequencer received the transaction.

Fees: The wallet should estimate the complete L2 charge.

Evidence: OP Stack transaction finality · OP Mainnet transaction fees

3. Include

Participants: Sequencer and L2 nodes.

The sequencer includes and executes the transfer. Until data is posted to Ethereum, this soft confirmation depends on the sequencer’s ordering.

What is established: An unsafe L2 block.

Fees: Charges apply according to this chain’s active fee rules.

Evidence: OP Stack transaction finality · OP Mainnet transaction fees

4. Finalize

Participants: Batcher, Ethereum and L2 nodes.

Posting data to Ethereum enables safe derivation. Finalizing the containing Ethereum block supplies stronger finality; the stages take variable time.

What is established: Safe, then finalized L2 history.

Fees: Data publication is distinct from the user submitting another transaction.

Evidence: OP Stack transaction finality

5. Settle

Participants: Recipient; bridge only if withdrawing.

A Standard Bridge withdrawal has a separate waiting and proof process. Its minimum seven-day delay does not mean every L2 transfer takes seven days to finalize.

What is established: An L2 payment, not an L1 withdrawal.

Fees: A later bridge withdrawal has additional transactions and fees.

Evidence: OP Stack transaction finality

Related concepts: optimistic rollups · rollup sequencers · ethereum blobs data availability · blockchain bridges.

Sources and scope

Version-specific example: OP Stack with Ethereum data availability, as documented on 2 October 2026. Illustrative amounts are chosen for arithmetic, not observed prices or current fees.