Can anyone see what’s in my crypto wallet?

Welcome to the cryptohunt jam where we spend one minute a day to explain crypto. In plain english.

One of the features of blockchains is that all transactions are recorded publicly - that way, the system is very hard to cheat because there are thousands of copies of its history on thousands of computers that can be compared for accuracy.

But did you know: This also means that you can easily see what anyone has sent, to whom, and even how much money is in their wallet?

So how does it work?

Every wallet has an address, which is like your bank account number. The blockchain is like a long diary, recording transactions between wallets and their balances every time they happen. You can see this yourself with just your web browser, by going to pages like blockstream.info for Bitcoin or etherscan.io for Ethereum. They contain the entire history of those blockchains, readily searchable.

Of course, you may not know who’s behind these addresses, but true anonymity is impossible by design. Whoever knows your wallet address can also see everything else.

But whatever you think about that, it’s also useful. For example , you’ll always know if someone got the money you sent for example. Or you can see how much an NFT sold for. Or if your donations have been used or are just sitting unused in an account.

And next time, we talk about Monero, a blockchain that tries to bring anonymity back to virtual money.

Disclaimer: This podcast references our opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Do your own research and seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.