Glossary · Ledger

Transaction.

A bundle that consumes input UTxOs and creates output UTxOs, atomically.

In depth

A transaction in a UTxO ledger references existing unspent outputs as inputs and produces new outputs. It either applies in full or not at all. On Cardano it also carries a fee, validity range, signatories, and any required redeemers and scripts.

Example

A transaction with two input UTxOs (10 ada and 3 ada) and two outputs (5 ada to Bob and ~7.82 ada change to you) atomically rebalances those four UTxOs.

Next on this path

  1. UTxO Unspent Transaction Output. A discrete chunk of value sitting at an address, consumable in full by a future transaction.
  2. Transaction fee The ada paid to the network for including a transaction. Deterministic on Cardano.
  3. Mempool A node-local pool of pending transactions waiting to be included in a block.