Bitcoin, explained
Bitcoin is a decentralised cryptocurrency whose on-chain transactions are recorded on a public ledger.
Content revised · English
- The field
- Payment
- Reading time
- 1 minute
- In this entry
- Meaning · relevance · limits
The meaning
Bitcoin is a decentralised cryptocurrency whose on-chain transactions are recorded on a public ledger.
Why it matters
A merchant invoice must identify the destination, amount, network and confirmation policy. The transaction fee is separate from the invoice amount.
The boundary
A public payment history can be correlated with other information; Bitcoin is not automatically anonymous.
Track a transaction separately from an invoice
A buyer checks a BTC transaction against the intended invoice. The network confirmation state and merchant payment state are distinct. OmbraHost checkout uses an exact server quote with a displayed expiry of 25 minutes and a two-confirmation backend threshold. Its configured fixed receiving address does not identify an order by itself; an explicit transaction-to-reference association is required. No blockchain monitor is connected.
- Use the exact asset, destination and amount of the authenticated current quote; a historical sample receipt is separate from a current payment request.
- A public transaction identifier is visible on-chain and may be linked to other information outside the protocol.