How to Use Cardanoscan: Inputs, Outputs, Fees and Confirmations

Cardanoscan (cardanoscan.io) shows Cardano transactions as what they are under the hood: a set of inputs (previous unspent outputs being consumed) and outputs (new ones being created), plus a fee. To check a payment, paste the transaction hash — 64 hex characters — or a payment address starting with addr1. The page shows the status with a confirmation count, the fee in ADA, and each output's address, ADA amount and tokens. Find the output to the recipient; that is what they received.

From submission to final: the timeline

Cardano time is divided into slots of one second and epochs of five days (432,000 slots). Not every slot has a block; on average a block appears about every 20 seconds. After submission, a transaction usually lands in one of the next few blocks, so within a minute. Confirmations then grow by roughly three a minute. The KOT.CASH liquidity provider credits ADA deposits after 15 confirmations, around five minutes. Ouroboros treats a block as fully settled after 2,160 blocks (the security parameter k), about twelve hours, but no service waits that long for ordinary payments.

Inputs and outputs, not 'from' and 'to'

• Inputs list the UTxOs being spent, each with the address that owned it. All inputs of one transaction usually belong to the same wallet, but a wallet has many addresses, so do not expect a single 'from' address.
• Outputs list new UTxOs: one or more to the recipient and usually one back to the sender as change. Change goes to another address of the same wallet.
• Tokens appear under the output they belong to, with policy ID and asset name. Every output that carries tokens also carries a minimum amount of ADA; the Cardano min-ADA calculator shows how much.
• Fee — what the network took, calculated as a × size + b (44 lovelace per byte plus 155,381 lovelace), about 0.17 ADA for a simple payment.

Sum of inputs = sum of outputs + fee, always. If a wallet balance dropped by more than the fee and the amount sent, check whether ADA went out together with tokens; the explanation is in Cardano not enough ADA to send tokens.

Addresses: payment part and stake part

A typical Shelley address (addr1…) combines a payment credential and a stake credential. Cardanoscan links each address to its stake address (stake1…), which groups all addresses of one wallet for staking and rewards. Click the stake address to see the wallet's total balance across its addresses and its delegation. That is the easiest way to confirm that change outputs and the main address belong to the same wallet.

Metadata, scripts and other tabs

The Metadata tab shows any JSON attached under a label number. Script transactions — DEX swaps, NFT mints — show redeemers, datums and the scripts involved; the collateral field appears for Plutus scripts. For an ordinary payment you can ignore all of that. The Withdrawals field shows staking rewards withdrawn in the same transaction, which explains extra ADA appearing in a wallet.

Checking a payment to a swap order

1. Search the hash from your wallet (Lace, Eternl, Yoroi all link to an explorer).
2. Find the output whose address equals the deposit address on the order page and check its ADA amount.
3. Wait for 15 confirmations; the order page moves to processing.
4. For an ADA payout, open the payout hash from the order page and find the output to your address.

If a hash looks right but Cardanoscan does not find it, check that it is not from another chain with the same 64-hex format; the transaction hash identifier lists the candidates. The deposit confirmations table shows the current requirement for ADA and other coins.