What is the Blockchain?

Bitcoin is completely decentralized. There are no banks to process the transactions, which means no institution can delay or deny a transaction from going through.

Instead, everything happens on the blockchain – the public network where Bitcoin transactions are recorded and confirmed. The blockchain is basically a huge online ledger that keeps track of all the Bitcoin transactions made.

While the blockchain posts publicly the amount being sent, and the unique address the funds are going to, there is no information displayed that can be used to identify the users involved, so confidentiality on each transaction is ensured.

Bitcoin mining is how transactions are confirmed

Bitcoin processing is done by supercomputers, known in the crypto world as “miners”. When you make a deposit or a withdrawal using Bitcoin, your transaction is added to the blockchain where it gets approved within just 10-30 minutes.

Every transaction is approved by independently operating miners. This adds security to the network by spreading the power across several miners, making the entire system difficult to attack.

Whenever Bitcoin is sent, a mining fee will be applied. This very small amount is applied as a miner’s fee to the transaction, which goes to the miners who confirm the transaction; their reward for doing the work. Typically, miner’s fees are super low, almost next to nothing in many cases.