Receiving
Your wallet shows a bitcoin address, often as a QR code. The QR code may contain a BIP21 link like bitcoin:bc1q…?amount=0.0005, so the sender's wallet fills in the amount. Good wallets give you a fresh address each time; reusing addresses makes your payments easier to link.
Sending
- Scan the QR code or paste the address.
- Check the first and last characters. Malware can swap copied addresses.
- Enter the amount and choose a fee.
- Confirm. Your wallet signs and broadcasts the transaction.
Bitcoin payments cannot be reversed by a bank. If you send to the wrong address, only the receiver can send it back.
Waiting for confirmation
The transaction first waits in the mempool. When a miner includes it in a block, it has one confirmation. Blocks arrive about every 10 minutes on average, but the gap varies.
Each new block on top makes reversal harder. The white paper shows the chance that an attacker catches up falls exponentially with each block. Many services wait for several confirmations for large amounts; for small amounts, one is often enough.
The fee
You pay a fee per virtual byte of transaction size, not per amount. Sending €10 or €10,000 can cost the same. As of 23 October 2026 the network is quiet, with recommended fees around 1–2 sat/vB. See Fees in practice.
Checking
Your wallet shows the txid. You can look it up on a block explorer to see its status.
Takeaway
Check the address, pick a fee, wait for confirmations that match the amount.